A Date For Sawyer
by Erich Zann III
Summary: Sawyer has a job for the Lagoon Company... Well, for Rock in particular. But it's not a typical job of larceny, murder or intimidation. She wants to go on a date with Rock. Rated M for sex in later chapters and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Nggh… Who the hell would be calling this early in the damn morning!? I still haven't gotten over my morning hangover!" Revy yelled, throwing a shoe at the phone, and missing by a mile. Rock smiled worriedly. For a woman who was such a sharp shooter, she sure had terrible aim with her shoes. And besides, it was almost 10:00.

"*Sigh*. Don't worry, Revy. I'll answer it…" Rock sighed. He walked over and picked up the phone, waiting for a moment before answering.

"Good morning. Lagoon Company, Rock speaking. How may I help you?" Rock asked politely, sure that the person was a would-be client

"You don't need to be so damn formal, you fucking stiff!" Revy yelled from the background.

"I can see that Revy is as friendly as ever…" Frederica said in what Rock assumed would be a sarcastic tone, if she was able to add inflection to her voice.

Unfortunately, she wasn't. Her throat had been cut years before, though Rock had never learned what happened to cause the incident, and he decided not to ask, as it was probably none of his business.

"Oh, Miss Sawyer." Rock said politely. "We haven't heard from you since Miss Yifei came to Roanapur."

"I do not know who 'Yifei' is. But it has been a long time. I am calling to arrange a job for Lagoon Company."

"Really? I never knew cleaners like you needed jobs done by people like us." Rock said. He was slightly perplexed, now.

"It is not a complicated job. But it is an important one, and I could not think of anyone I would trust more than Dutch and his company. Please come down to the café near where you usually have your face shaved in the morning at noon today. We will talk then."

"Couldn't we just talk over the phone? The lines are so bad in this place that there's no possible way that anyone could be listening in." Rock asked, slightly concerned that she knew where he had his face shaved. Though, he knew that he should have long since stopped thinking of anything as 'out of the ordinary' in Roanapur.

"It is not fear of being tapped. It is that I do not want the rest of the crew to hear. I wish you to come alone, as well."

"Should I bother asking why?" Rock asked, trying not to sound suspicious. Of all the people he knew from Roanapur, Frederica was pretty scary, or she was when she wanted to be. She talked about taking a person out in buckets like it was a pleasant memory.

"Because of all the members of Lagoon Company, you seem the most diplomatic. You can bring a phone if you like, to phone Dutch when we negotiate the price. But you must come alone."

So that was how Rock found himself sitting in that café with some noodles, staring across the table at the now silent goth girl who seemed to positively radiate sadism. He had seen her use her chainsaw, and she was scary efficient with it.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Okajima Rokuro." Frederica said with a slight smile. Rock returned the greeting, not bothering to tell her that she should have said 'Konnichiwa' since it was afternoon rather than morning. It didn't really matter.

"Good afternoon. You don't need to speak Japanese. I can speak several languages, including English." Rock said politely. "Now, what kind of delivery were you looking for?" Rock asked. He had already spoken to Dutch, so he didn't need to bring a phone. He could make the deal by himself. Rock was surprised, though, to see Frederica blushing in front of him.

"I did not ask you here to make a delivery. I did not wish to speak over the phone because I am aware of the hostility that Revy shows to those who make advances toward you." Frederica said, surprising Rock with how much she knew, and also with the direction the conversation was taking.

"I want to ask you if you would go on a date with me."

"But… I-I… And…"

"I am aware that we are not really close friends, and I am not expecting a relationship from this. I have simply never been on a date before. I have been in Roanapur since I was young, and have not had many chances for social interaction."

"But… But why me?" Rock asked, becoming more confused by the moment. He was sure that someone as talented at what she did, and as pretty as she was, could find a more appropriate date for herself.

"Because of everyone that I know in Roanapur, you are the one I find I can trust most, and the one that I dislike least." This was not strictly true. She had no problem with Shenhua or Lotton.

Rock found her choice of words odd, though. Typically when someone was asking for a date, they tried for more sophisticated, and less coarse speech. But, this was Roanapur, and so, Rock wasn't overly concerned.

What did concern him was that her choice of words seemed to indicate that she more or less disliked everyone in Roanapur

"Sure. I'll go on a date with you. Did you have any particular plans? That would make things easier for me… I don't have much experience, either."

"That surprises me, Rock. You seem like the kind of man who would have had many girlfriends in the past."

"Well, in Japan, social dynamics aren't quite the same as they are in Roanapur. I wasn't as attractive as most other men my age."

"Well, regardless, I do have a plan. We will go to a movie. We will each buy our own snacks. We will go to dinner, and pay our own bill. Then, you will walk me back to UG Pork, and we will part ways for the night."

Rock rolled his eyes at how very finely she had cut down the night's events. She knew exactly what she planned to do, but no clue as to what dates were really supposed to be like. Typically…

"Usually, I wouldn't argue with a woman who could dissect me with a chainsaw, but typically, on dates, the man pays for things, and the date is supposed to be… Romantic, and slightly less strictly planned…"

"If you truly wish to pay for my food as well as your own, I will not object." Sawyer said flatly. Rock couldn't help but roll his eyes again.

"I'm only saying that you said you wanted to experience what a date was like. No offense, but what you described sounds more like a business meeting and a show." Rock said. Now, he had experienced plenty of those.

"Very well. I suppose I will have to follow your lead on this date, then, Rock-kun…" Sawyer said with a smile that looked more like a sadistic smirk with the way the light caught her eyes. This caused Rock to shiver slightly.

"What night would you like this date to be, Miss Sawyer?" Rock asked politely.

"Call me Frederica. If we are to be going on a date, I would at least like to pretend that we are well acquainted. And please make sure that Revy does not follow you. I will bring my chainsaw. But I do not wish to have to use it."

"R-right. People typically don't bring weapons on dates, Miss Sawyer…"

"If you would feel more comfortable without it, I will refrain from bringing it. I would advise that we at least bring a weapon. It is not safe in Roanapur at night with no weapon. I am not nearly as talented with knives or guns, but I could bring one if necessary."

"N-no… Bring your chainsaw, if you want to."

"Then, I will see you at 6:30 this Sunday. The movie starts at 7, so be sure you are not late."

"Hey, Rock! Where the hell are you going on Sunday with that stupid shirt and tie!? I told you to wear the Hawaiian shirt that I got for you on days off! And besides, we're supposed to go to the Yellow Flag tonight for some drinking. Didn't Dutch tell you that?"

"Well, yes. But I told him I couldn't join you guys. Besides, I do have a life outside Lagoon Company."

"Pfft! No you don't! What are you gonna do? Go out on a date with your nonexistent girlfriend? Like any girl would even want you…"

"Maybe I just want a peaceful evening. Could I borrow a gun? I know I couldn't fire one of your Berettas, but I'm sure that you have other guns." Rock asked politely.

"Do you even know _how_ to shoot a gun? A stiff like you is more likely to hurt himself than an enemy. Just pray for your safety. It's about the best you can do."

"Well, all I really need to know is aim and shoot. I don't think I'm really going to get in any trouble. It's just for added precaution."

"Fine… Here's a 9 mm. You point, you aim, and you shoot. Safety's on. Safety's off. Be sure it's off before you try to fire. If it's not, you'll be dead before you get a second chance to shoot."

"Thanks. I owe you one. If I use it, I promise, I'll refill the cartridge." Rock said politely, finishing tying his tie, and walking out the door, putting the gun inside his belt. Revy watched him go with great suspicion, and decided that drinking could wait.

She quietly went to the window and jumped, and hid in an alley, and waited for Rock to walk out. She watched for a moment as he walked down the street, then hid again as she saw what he was really up to. She saw him greet Frederica. They talked for a minute or two, and though she couldn't hear them, she could tell they were in a hurry. The two ran off, and Revy followed after them.

"Wait. We are being followed. Do you have a weapon, Rock?" Frederica asked. Rock nodded, and pulled out his gun. Frederica couldn't help but laugh at the pathetic gun that he was holding, but she tried to stifle it, not wanting to offend him. He wasn't a fighter, anyhow. He was the diplomatic member of Lagoon Company. So she merely took out her chainsaw, and revved it a few times until it roared to life.

"Come out in the open. You cannot hope to hide from me, and we are in a hurry." Frederica said coldly. Revy sighed, and walked out with her hands up. Normally, she would come out guns blazing. But she knew that she couldn't get one up on Frederica so easily. Her chainsaw was truly the worst enemy of Revy's own guns.

"Rock. I asked you to make sure that you were not followed by her. I do not wish to fight you, Revy." Frederica said, being surprisingly diplomatic. "I asked Rock on a date because… Well, I have never been on a date before."

For a moment, Revy was silent, but then, she began laughing rather rudely, causing Frederica to blush rather ashamedly, and try somewhat futilely to appear smaller. She put her chainsaw away. She was being honest when she said she didn't want to fight Revy.

"O-oh… You were being serious? But why choose _Rock_ of all people? You're pretty, you're strong, and you're talented. You probably could've gotten any number of men to go on a date with you. But you choose _him_?" Revy asked derisively, pointing at Rock.

"He seemed to me to be the most honest, and 'normal' person in Roanapur. As such, I chose him because I wished to experience a normal date, rather than what someone like _you_ would likely consider a date, where you would go to some sleazy motel and fuck until the sun peeked over the horizon." Frederica said resentfully, not bothering to use more polite language. Revy looked truly surprised at what Frederica was saying.

"You mean, that _isn't_ what a date is supposed to be?"

"No, Revy. That is not a date." Rock said. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll be late for the movie if we don't hurry up."

"Where the hell did you get the money for a movie!?" Revy yelled.

"Unlike you, who blow all your money on alcohol, guns, and cigarettes, I save some of my money for occasions like this. Now goodbye. Please don't follow us." Rock said, turning around, and heading toward the theater.

For a moment, Revy raged in her own head, but then gave up, and went back to their hotel. She couldn't let on that she really liked Rock. That would totally ruin her image.

"I admire the way you handled her, Rock. You were less spineless than usual." Frederica said in her usual blunt manner. Rock sighed, and rolled his eyes.

"Miss Sawyer? I have a favor to ask."

"I would be glad to do a favor for you, Rock. I owe you, anyway for taking me on this date. The movie theater is right here, by the way."

"Well, you don't actually owe me anything. I'm glad to be able to help, but do you think you could train me with a weapon?"

"Why would you ask that of me? Admittedly, I am the best in Roanapur with a chainsaw…" Frederica said with a mild blush. "But there are easier weapons for one of your… slightly unmuscular constitution to use. Perhaps you should consider a gun, like Revy, or knives, like Shenhua. I have used both, but I would not claim to be talented with them."

"I'm actually stronger than I look, but you have a point. I was planning to ask Revy to help me learn how to shoot a gun. But I wanted to be fluent with more than one weapon. After all, Revy would be SOL if she ran out of bullets, and Shenhua would be SOL if her knives broke…"

"That is not entirely true, Rock. They both are talented at martial arts, and street fighting. A weapon user cannot simply rely on a gun or a knife. They must be prepared to improvise if they run out."

"Are you good at martial arts, Miss Sawyer?"

"Buy the tickets. We are seeing Carrie. No. I am not as good at martial arts as Revy or Shenhua. But I am also not a bounty hunter or a mercenary like Shenhua and Revy. I am by and large a cleaner.

"I execute people who have crossed the wrong person in inventive and grotesque ways to set an example. That is why I use a chainsaw, and why it would be unwise for you to attempt the same. I am often referred to as 'Leatherface'."

"I see. Then I'll simply have to ask Revy. Let's go. The movie should be starting soon." Rock said, grabbing Frederica's hand and running into the theater. Rock had already seen the original Carrie in theaters and on tape when it came out. It was a good movie. He had also read the book, as he was a fan of some of Stephen King's works. But he had not seen the remake.

He wondered now if it would be any good. In his experience, horror movie remakes were not really any good. But he had agreed to the date, and so, he would go along with it. He paid for the tickets, and took Frederica's hand and moved over to the snack counter.

Rock wasn't entirely sure if he should buy anything other than candy that was clearly sealed in a bag, to avoid getting sick, but Frederica ordered a large popcorn, and so, Rock decided that if she wasn't worried, that he shouldn't be either.

After all, why would a movie theater poison their customers? Revy would be in stitches if he did get poisoned, but for the time, he did like popcorn, and so, he ordered a medium, not wanting to gorge like Frederica seemed to be doing (it was hard to believe that she was still so thin if this was how she ate.

"I do not normally eat like this. I am simply hungry tonight. Though I have been known to eat rather vast amounts of food. That is why I am so rarely invited to acquaintances' houses." Frederica said in her usual mechanical monotone. Rock knew she couldn't help it, that she needed the device to speak at all. But it was slightly disconcerting.

He had heard recently of a type of surgery that would allow a person to gain the use of their voice back after they had lost it by being cut across the throat. The magazine had said that there had been some success, but that it was far from assured, and that it was expensive, and insurance didn't usually cover it.

"Hey, Miss Sawyer?"

"Frederica. We are on a date, not in a business meeting." Frederica corrected Rock. He sighed and nodded.

"Frederica-san, then. You know, there's been news recently that there has been some success in restoring the voices of those who have had their voice box damaged…"

"While I admit that my current voice is at the very least disconcerting, and even frightening to some, I have never had a need to have my voice fixed. There are a few things I miss about having a real voice, though."

"Really?" Rock asked politely. "Like what?"

"I used to be an excellent singer when I was a child. I enjoyed it a great deal, and hoped to be a professional when I grew up. My voice box was cut, though, and I can no longer do that. I have even lost my passion for dancing since I lost my voice."

"Have you ever looked back and wished that things could have been different?"

"Wishing is for characters in Disney movies. In real life, dreams do not come true just from wishing for them." Frederica said in that same monotone, but Rock could sense a tinge of regret, and even anger in her voice.

"Well, it's true that wishes don't come true just because you want them to. But that has never stopped people from wanting something, even if they can't have it." Frederica looked up at Rock. She was not a very tall woman, and it was slightly surprising that she could heft her chainsaw so proficiently. But she was certainly strong. At that moment, though, as they sat down in the theater, Rock thought he saw a tear about to form in Frederica's eyes. But it was gone almost as soon as it came.

"Crying will get nobody anywhere. It is for fools who cannot fix their own problems. Those who cry 'save me' and 'help me' should not live in such an unforgiving world."

Rock sighed, hearing this statement. Frederica was almost as pessimistic as Revy was, though at least Frederica seemed to have some sense that she at least _should_ feel compassion for others, unlike Revy, who seemed to think that anyone who wasn't like her was an idiot.

"Rock… If I tell you a secret, can you promise to keep it? If you tell anyone and it reaches my ears, I will know who told."

"Of course. Keeping secrets is easier in Roanapur since nobody inherently wants to mind other people's business." Rock said with a smile, though he wasn't sure if Frederica agreed with that.

"I do not know if I would call it 'love'. I have nothing to compare this feeling to that I could determine that. But I like you in a way that I do not like anyone else in this city. And so, I want to ask if you would be amenable to a second date on a later occasion. Again, I would not expect you to commit to anything.

That is not the way it usually works around here. But I would like to see more of you." Frederica said, blushing again, seeming very much like a normal person. Rock was truly surprised, but he kept his voice down as he spoke.

"But why me? We have almost nothing in common. You're a successful cleaner, and I'm just the probationary member of a delivery group."

"It is because you seem… normal to me. You remind me of the world I used to live in, and it is pleasant to be in that world, even for a little while."

"You have a point. I learned that I could never go back to my old world the hard way. I had to watch someone to whom I had become attached die in front of me to realize that Japan was no longer my home. Roanapur is my home, now, and I can never go back… And I don't think I'd want to if I could."

"The person that died… It was a woman, correct?" Frederica asked, showing surprising insight.

"Y-yes. A girl named Yukio Washimine. She was the daughter of a Yakuza boss, but, up until then, had never wanted anything to do with her father's world. Unfortunately, her father died, and the Council would only accept a blood relative of his to act as a replacement.

"And she was his only daughter, so she was forced to take up the role of the boss of a Yakuza group at the age of sixteen. She was sucked into the dark world of the night, and it drove her to suicide. My family has always been Christian. My church preaches that suicide is a mortal sin, and that those who commit suicide will go to Hell for their transgression.

"I stopped believing in God shortly after I came here. What god would allow such pain and suffering in the world. But I can't deny that I feel slightly guilty. I know that there was little I could do. Miss Balalaika had set her target on Yukio's group, and once Miss Balalaika sets you as a target, you either depart the country or depart this earth. But still… She reminded me of the life that I used to have."

"For a time, I wished that I might go back to my old life. But eventually, I gave up wishing for something that could not happen, and accepted the life I now have. I can no longer even remember what my family looked like.

I was from Germany, originally. But my hometown is a blur to me, now. And do not feel that you must lose your humanity. I admire you for retaining your sense of right and wrong, even in a world where there is evil all around you…" Frederica said, reaching up, and pulling Rock in to kiss him. Rock gasped as Frederica's lips connected with his, and he was sure that he felt her smirking, even as she kissed him.

"Damn. The movie is over. We have been talking through the entire film. We missed it. Well, I saw the 1976 version. I cannot help but think that it was better, anyway. Do you still have money? If so, we should get dinner…"

"You're still hungry? You just ate a large popcorn right down to the bottom…" Rock said, amazed that anyone could eat that much.

"Yes. I did not get to eat today. I had many bodies to clean today, and I decided to work through breakfast and lunch. It is not a big deal. Let's go…" Fredrica said, grabbing Rock's hand, and pulling him out of the theater.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Rock! It's good to see you. You never come here to eat these days! The last time you came here was when Revy pulled her gun on you!" The restaurant owner yelled, striding across the room and greeting Rock jovially. He then turned to Fredrica and looked at her with a confused stare.

"I'm afraid I don't recognize your date, Rock. Is she new to Roanapur? I think most people would recognize such a pretty woman…" The man said, blushing slightly. Frederica also blushed upon being called 'pretty' by a complete stranger.

"What are you talking about? I saw you just… two days ago. You bought pork from me…" Frederica said bluntly. The man thought for a moment, then jumped slightly.

"Sawyer!? I didn't know you and Rock even knew each other! I-I didn't even know you came out of your cleaning room!"

"Of course I leave UG Pork on occasion. Rather, I do not live there. I live in an apartment with Shenhua and Lotton. We met when I was hired to kill a woman that Lagoon Company had been hired to protect. It seems we got off on fairly poor terms. But…"

"No need to say more! You two can sit right over here! You know, Miss Sawyer, I hate to sound rude, but I always pictured you as sort of a female Leatherface…"

Hearing this, Rock gulped. Truthfully, the first time he met Frederica, he had the same image in his mind, of a female, and much more attractive, Leatherface.

She even did that same Chainsaw Dance of Doom that Leatherface did in the movie. And now, he was slightly concerned that Frederica would rip out a knife and stab the man right on the spot, It was the sort of thing Revy would do if you said anything that could even be considered remotely insulting. But Frederica smiled, and even blushed slightly.

"Oh, shucks…" Frederica began in her metallic monotone with the same deadpan face she usually wore. "I am not even half as frightening as Leatherface… But I thank you for the compliment…"

Hearing this, Rock and the restaurant owner stopped and stared at each other for a moment as Frederica walked on toward the table. Rock would have to disagree. Frederica was terrifying when she was using her chainsaw. And she was even scarier than Leatherface since she was real, and Leatherface was just a horror movie character.

After all, the horror that really existed was always more frightening than the horror on the movie screen. That was why so many people found _The Strangers_ to be more frightening than _Nightmare on Elm Street_ : Because _The Strangers_ was a horror situation that could really happen. It hit close to home and struck a nerve amongst the fear of the unknown.

"That was a compliment?" Rock whispered to the owner, and the owner shrugged. He hadn't thought of it as either a compliment or an insult, but merely an observation he had made one time when he saw Frederica doing some bounty hunting work.

"Anyway, here are your menus; can I get you anything to drink?"

"I guess I'll have Sake. I've definitely gotten used to hard liquor, but I do miss Sake, still."

"Got it… And you, Miss Sawyer?"

"I will have Everclear…"

"Um… Miss Sawy… er… Frederica-san? How old _are_ you?"

Frederica glanced over at Rock with a rather careless look.

"I am 19. Why do you ask?" Frederica said, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Well… You seem a bit… I dunno… Young to be drinking such strong alcohol…"

For a moment, neither the owner nor Frederica said anything. But then, they both began laughing. To be honest, Rock thought that Frederica's laugh rather grated on his ears, and seemed to make his head rattle like it was a car running over gravel.

The restaurant owner laughed much longer, though, and finally, he stopped, and said, "Mr. Rock… You obviously haven't met many so-called 'underage' people in Roanapur. There is no drinking age here. Most of us have been drinking since we were twelve or thirteen, assuming we've been here that long…"

"I-I see… My apologies, Frederica-san…"

"Do not apologize. They say that it is good to have someone who can add humor into your life. Usually only slicing people up with my chainsaw makes me smile. This is definitely a rare occasion…" Frederica said. Then, she glanced at her menu.

"Thank you, waiter…"

Rock smiled nervously at this. The man wasn't really a waiter. He was the owner of the restaurant, and was likely just slightly intimidated by the fact that Sawyer the Cleaner was on a dinner date and had come to _his_ restaurant. It wasn't really important to correct her, though.

"So, Frederica-san… I take it from people's reactions to you, or rather, lack thereof, that you don't really get out too often. Do you really stay cooped up in your meat packing business so much?"

"I am not what you would call a 'people person, Rock. I am better at taking the mob's cleanup work, and cleaning places that would otherwise be ruined after a shooting, or other crime scene.

When I am not at UG Pork, I am likely at Shenhua's apartment, playing video games with Lotton. Between you and me, he is terrible. But… I did have fun tonight with you…" Frederica said, kissing Rock again. This time, it was Rock's turn to blush. He still could think of a smart comment, though.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to kiss until the third date?" He asked sarcastically. Frederica smirked, and seemed to snicker, although it came out as more of a low growl.

"Whoever told you that should have their head examined. In Roanapur, you usually do not even have three dates with someone. One night stands are far more common."

"Ehehe…" Rock said, giving a rather forced laugh. "I suppose you're right, Frederica-san…"

"You have been calling me that all evening. I am not familiar with the title of –san. Does it have any particular connotations associated with it?"

"Well, I don't know if I would say that, but, it can mean different things, based on who you're speaking to. It generally refers to the term Mr., Mrs., or Miss, though it can simply be a more formal manner of addressing someone, generally used with anyone with whom you may be acquainted, but could not be considered close to."

For a moment, Frederica was silent. But then, she looked slightly hurt, almost as though Rock had offended her. Had he said something to make her angry? He would be the first to admit that he wasn't the best with women, although…

In all fairness, once he got to Roanapur, he seemed to have slightly better luck, attracting not only the wrathful and jealous attention of Revy, but also the attention of Feng Yifei, formerly from the People's Army of China, and Eda from the Ripoff Church, along with at least the respect of Sister Yolanda, and Balalaika, which meant that he had about 1.5 times the number of female friends than he had back in Japan.

It was weird that he had to end up on the wrong side of the law to gain positive attention from 'the fairer sex', though he wasn't sure that term could really apply to any of the women he had met in Roanapur, save maybe for Feng Yifei, who was fairly normal to begin with.

She was just betrayed by her country. But he couldn't really complain. But now, he was wondering if he had inadvertently put Frederica off.

"Did I… Say something wrong, Frederica-san?"

"I would not say that you 'said something wrong'. But rather, I had hoped that perhaps we could at least pretend to be friends, if only for one night."

Suddenly, it hit Rock. He had been treating Frederica like someone with whom he should keep a professional distance. But she really had wanted to simulate the experience of a _date_.

"Well… Is there something you would prefer that I call you?" Rock asked politely.

"I am not familiar with Japanese customs, Rock, so I could not give you an appropriate nickname for me. But I do know enough about the world at large to know that those who are affectionate with you, or at least familiar, choose nicknames for you on their own." Frederica said, ignoring the look that Rock had that he was feeling terribly pressured.

"W-well… You probably don't want to be called Sawyer. That's what they call you at UG Pork. Hmmm… Frederica-chan seems too cutesy… No offense…"

"What does –chan mean?" Frederica asked, seeming strangely attracted to this nickname.

"Well… It doesn't really have a direct translation. A lot of Japanese terms don't have easy translations. But… It's used to refer to people with whom you are intimately familiar, such as family members, romantic partners, extremely close friends… People like that… I suppose I could call you Freddy… But…"

"If you are making a Nightmare on Elm Street reference, I will cut you up right here…" Frederica said hostilely. Rock shook his head, terrified, now.

"I wasn't… But I suppose Freddy is out… I guess it's either just plain Frederica, or Frederica-chan…"

"I… Am somewhat fond of Frederica-chan… Though I will not force you to call me that if you are not comfortable with it."

"N-no… It's fine… Frederica-chan… Just out of curiosity, are you not a fan of Nightmare on Elm Street?"

"The first movie was a stroke of genius. The others were more or less garbage." Frederica said. Suddenly, though, she realized that a waiter was standing next to their table.

"How long have you been standing there?" Frederica asked, turning a deep shade of crimson that seemed almost impossible in anyone who hadn't suffered severe heatstroke.

"Um… About since you asked Mr. Okajima to explain the semantics of Japanese suffixes to you, Miss Sawyer. I apologize for not announcing myself, but I didn't want to interrupt."

"It's alright. I'd like the beef ramen." Rock said politely.

"I will have a steak…" Frederica said.

"How would you like that cooked, Miss Sawyer?" The waiter asked, feeling slightly nervous in the presence of this rather eerie woman who was rumored to not only be a vicious bounty hunter, but also a ruthlessly efficient cleaner for Chang and the other mobs in Roanapur.

"Medium-rare. You are new here, correct? You will find that I am not quite as frightening as I appear at first glance." She answered. The waiter nodded, and took their menus, all too happy to be on his way. He was indeed new to Roanapur, having only come less than a month ago He had been forced to adapt quickly, and learn the ins and outs of the city, lest he face quick, bloody annihilation.

Soon their dinners came, and they both began eating quickly. Rock was also pretty hungry, having not had much to eat. He always wondered how he managed to stay thin when he mostly ate pizza. Frederica swallowed, and looked at Rock.

"So, Rock… I have never asked what you did before you came to Roanapur. You cannot have been a criminal your entire life." Frederica said. Rock sighed. He usually didn't like to think about his old life.

"Well… I was a member of the resource investigation department at Asahi Industries back in Japan. I wrote reports. I sought out clients. But… I think my most important job was bowing to my superiors, all while hoping that one day, everyone would be bowing to me… It wasn't really much of a job, and frankly, I think living here is more rewarding." Rock said with a sad smile.

"If you are happier here… Then why do you look so sad?" Frederica asked Rock, seeming concerned about him, even as he ate more of his dinner.

"Well… It would be a long story. Do you remember the story I told about when I went back to Japan?" Rock asked, looking at Frederica, even as he slurped his noodles, being careful not to splash the broth on him. Frederica nodded.

"Well, it's a strange story. She was much younger than I was, Yukio-san, but I found myself falling for her innocent charm. That was why I was so afraid when she began falling to the darkness. I didn't want her to become one of the walking dead. She was wise beyond her years, already, and was the daughter of a Yakuza boss, and was protected by Manslayer Ginji, a man who…"

"You could not mean _the_ Manslayer Ginji, could you? His aptitude with a sword is legendary. Revy told me once after she came back from Japan that he split a bullet in half with his katana. He would likely give even Roberta a run for her money…"

"Well, I don't know about that… But he certainly was a dangerous man. Revy only won through luck. I distracted Ginji by speaking to Yukio. She told me that she wanted to run away to Roanapur with Ginji. That seemed to give him pause for a moment, and Revy was able to shoot him.

"He would have beaten her. He had destroyed one of her guns, and stabbed her through the leg. She wouldn't have been able to run anymore. But then, seeing Ginji dead, she committed suicide with the sword that he himself wielded."

"That is a sad story. But loss of innocence is merely a part of life, and must not be mourned. A woman in her situation would have fallen to the darkness sooner or later. Balalaika merely sped the process."

"No!" Rock shouted, hitting the table with his fist. "I can't accept that! I can't believe that she couldn't have stayed a normal person."

"No. It is not that you cannot accept it. It is that you will not admit that you have already accepted it. You were forced to accept it the minute you became a citizen of Roanapur. You are smart, Rock. It does not suit you to play the fool." Frederica said sternly, looking sharply at Rock, who sighed, and nodded.

At this moment, the waiter came back out with their meals, and set them down. Rock looked over in amazement at Frederica's steak. It was huge, and the potatoes were also plentiful.

Rock's ramen, on the other hand was much less grandiose, and he split his chopsticks, and began to eat. Frederica also dug in, cutting her steak rather expertly, though Rock wasn't terribly surprised. After all, she cut up meat for a living, whether the meat was people or pork. In fact, Rock thought, the beef for the steak could have actually come from UG Pork, unless UG really was _only_ a pork company.

"I can almost hear your next question. UG Pork does process other meats besides pork. I have been considering changing the name to UG Butchery." Frederica said, stuffing another large piece of steak in her mouth. Rock watched as she ate, wondering where all that food went. After all, she really wasn't a large person.

Although she was obviously strong, and sturdy, she wasn't tall, and yet, even after a huge bucket of popcorn, she was still packing her steak and potatoes away like nobody's business. Finally, she finished, having consumed the entire meal, and the entire bottle of Everclear. Rock looked across at her, and noted that she was definitely looking somewhat tipsy, if not completely drunk.

Soon, the waiter came back over to the table, and asked if they wanted desert. Frederica was the only one who nodded. Rock had to admit that he was amazed that she could eat so much. Frederica looked at him and her lips twitched into a strange, and beautiful, but also slightly nerve-wracking smile that seemed halfway between pleasant and sadistic… What did that say about Rock, that he would find a sadistic smile to be pleasant?

"I would like vanilla ice cream, please…" Frederica said, surprising Rock slightly with how polite she was being, and how clearly she was still speaking, despite being drunk. She never seemed the type to observe social niceties, nor did she look the kind of person who could hold her liquor well. However, she dug into her ice cream, still leaving Rock to wonder if she truly had a bottomless stomach.

After all… In just three and a half hours, she had eaten an extraordinarily large bucket of popcorn, a large steak, and ice cream to top it off. Rock couldn't really say anything, though. He had his own bad habits. It wasn't really until then that he really thought about his smoking habit again. He hadn't considered quitting smoking in years. But now, he seriously considered it.

His last girlfriend had told him that it made his breath and his clothes stink like tar and nicotine. His ex-girlfriend had a severe case of Synesthesia, and whatever she smelled, instantly translated into both sight and taste, and vice versa.

So when they kissed, she got a huge nose full of smoke and began to see the nicotine on his breath. Needless to say, their relationship didn't last too long. Besides, she also disliked his drinking habit.

At least nobody could fault him for drinking in Roanapur, since, it seemed even underage people drank. Finally, Frederica finished, and burped rather loudly without bothering to excuse herself. In Japan, that would be considered terribly unladylike, but Rock had learned not to expect better from the women in Roanapur, all of whom could likely kick any man's ass back in Japan.

Rock sighed, and took the check, looking at it. It was much higher than he usually had. But he put the money on the table along with a tip, and took Frederica out.

Frederica smiled again, this time truly happy that she had been able to experience a 'normal' date with a man who wasn't just looking to get into her pants. She had gone on one date where they ended up at a hotel that was usually used in the sex industry, and the man had obviously thought that since she was slightly drunk, that he could have his way with her without a problem.

She proved him wrong when she used her chainsaw to cut his dick off and left him bleeding and screaming in the hotel room. This date was much more than she had expected, in fact. She had not thought that Rock would truly be so polite and gentlemanlike.

He truly was brought up well, and while that usually seemed to sit poorly with Revy, Frederica admired it. As they got back to the Lagoon Company's current address, Frederica gave Rock a slightly awkward smile, and blushed lightly, turning away for a moment to compose herself before she spoke again.

"Thank you for treating me to such a pleasant evening. I do not remember ever having so much fun in my time in Roanapur. Please tell me if I owe you anything for the date. I did request you for a mission." Frederica said nervously. Rock smiled and shook his head, kissing Frederica on the cheek.

"This wasn't a mission, Frederica-chan… It was a _date._ I thought we agreed on that. Besides, I think I would like to see you again whenever you have a free night."

"R-really?" Frederica asked, unable to stop herself from stammering. Rock nodded, and took her hands in his.

"Yes. If you don't mind, that is."

"No… I-it is not that I mind. It is just… I never considered myself to be very pretty. I was sure that with so many beautiful women like Shenhua and Revy around you, that you would already be interested in someone else…"

"You're very pretty." Rock said with a genuine smile that set even Frederica's heart, which she thought long atrophied, racing. She blushed again, and nodded.

"Th-thank you. I do not know the next time we will both have free time. But when we do, I look forward to spending it with you, Rock…"

"Great. See you then…" Rock said, walking into the hotel, waving goodbye, and closing the door behind him. Frederica was slightly confused for a moment. He had not even brought up the subject of sex. She had never had sex before…

Actually, she had never been on a date before… Except for the guy who she castrated. She had been in Roanapur since she was fairly young, and besides, she kept herself busy with work, and so, had fairly little time for recreation. She would have to strongly consider amending her schedule.

 _Thank you, Rokuro Okajima. You've made me so happy tonight._ Frederica thought to herself as she walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Rock walked upstairs, and into the room, which was pitch black. That surprised him, as usually, they were all still up and drinking, and he was sure that at least Revy would still be up to interrogate him about his date. When he turned on the light, though, he found out what had happened.

*POP! POP!*

Revy, Dutch, and Benny all set off firecrackers, scaring Rock something awful, nearly causing him to lose balance. However, he steadied himself, and looked back at his comrades with a rather sheepish smile.

"So, Romeo… How was your date with Miss Leatherface?" Revy asked. Rock could immediately tell that she was more than a little bit drunk. Rock sighed, and took Revy's hand off of his shoulder, and looked at her reproachfully.

"It's 'Frederica', not 'Miss Leatherface'. And it went really well. We saw Carrie in the theaters, and went to dinner. Actually, you'd be amazed at the appetite that girl has." Rock said with a slight laugh.

Obviously, Revy could not but take this the wrong way, and she punched Rock in the arm so hard that he was sure he heard his bone break. But as he moved his arm to test that theory, he found that his arm was fully intact.

"You dog… I guess you aren't as big a square as I thought you were… But really… You could've chosen any woman in Roanapur to chase, and you choose the psychotic one with a chainsaw as big as she is? You got guts…" Revy said with a laugh

Rock sighed discontentedly as Dutch and Benny raised their beers to this, and nodded in agreement.

"That's not quite what I meant. I really meant that she could eat a lot. She had a large popcorn at the movie theater and a soda, and then ate a large steak before finishing her meal off with ice cream… I've never seen anyone eat so much…" Rock said with a sigh. Revy, Dutch, and Benny all began laughing at this.

"Yeah… I've heard about her ability to eat her way through the room. It seems she held back on your date… Probably because you were paying for everything. So…" Dutch said. Rock was surprised at what came out of Dutch's mouth next. He had always seemed like the most diplomatic of the three of his teammates, so it didn't seem like something he'd say.

"Sawyer has always been kind of creepy… You know, with her mechanical voice and all. Is her personality any better?" He asked. For a moment, Rock couldn't answer. Finally, he got his voice back, though.

"Yes, actually. She's a pretty nice girl… Well… Relatively speaking. At least she isn't the type to pull out her chainsaw at the slightest insult like some people I could mention…" Rock said, turning to Revy with a smirk. Revy blanched at this observation.

"Damn right I get angry when some dickhead insults me! Why shouldn't I!?"

"Well, she did get kind of peeved when we talked about what I should call her… I had been calling her Frederica-san up to then, and I suppose she was slightly offended that I was addressing her so formally on what was supposed to be a date.

She was the one who told me to find a different way to call her. So I suggested a few names, including using the –chan suffix. I thought that was too cutesy, though, so I also suggested Freddy, though… Apparently that really made her mad because she thought I was making a reference to Nightmare on Elm Street."

Hearing this, the others laughed, and nodded. It was true. They could see Frederica being mad at being referred to like Krueger.

"So what did you finally decide to call her, Rock?" Dutch asked with a hint of humor in his voice. Rock sighed.

"I just called her Frederica. It seemed the easiest."

"But you didn't answer my question. What's her personality like?" Dutch asked, seeming interested, now. Rock sighed again. He never thought he would be interrogated by the whole company.

"Well, it's nothing like what you'd think. She comes across as callous, and even sadistic most of the time, but she does have a nice side to her, and I was surprised that she seemed so normal tonight. Though, she is only 19 years old, so, I suppose it's to be expected that she's still a little bit normal…"

This last statement seemed to really give the company pause.

"Sh-she's only nineteen? I admit she looks young, but to think she's so young, and doing a job like that!" Revy said, seeming truly struck silent by Rock's declaration.

"So…" Benny said, speaking for the first time. "When is the sequel going to come out?" He asked, referring to their second date. Rock shrugged and shook his head.

"She knows we're both busy, and on irregular schedules. It could be in three days. It could be in three weeks. By the way… Revy, you can have my cigarettes. I tried to quit years ago when I was with this girl who had severe Synesthesia.

"But, we broke up, and I guess I fell back into the habit."

"Whatever… Am I even supposed to know what Synesthesis is?" Revy asked, standing up, and snatching the cigarettes from Rock's hand. Dutch sighed.

"Synesthesia is when a person's brain confuses two or more of their senses. It can take place between taste and smell, smell and vision, or any other sense. It usually only affects two senses, and can cause a person to 'smell colors', or 'see smells'. However, there are rare cases where more than two senses are confused. I think this is what Rock is referring to when he says his ex had 'severe synesthesia'."

"Wow. I'm impressed, Dutch. I never took you for an academic." Rock said, not intending to insult Dutch. Dutch laughed, though, and nodded.

"See, my mother and father both had Synesthesia, so there was a high probability that I also would have it. Ironically, I was blessedly free of the condition.

"My two sisters and three brothers all had it, though. You'd like my oldest sister. She's older than you, Rock, but she's definitely the diplomatic type, just like you, and is highly intelligent. She graduated from Harvard when she was sixteen with a doctorate in genetics, and went on to get degrees in Biology and Chemistry as well.

"She works in a laboratory, now, trying to cure genetic disorders that are thought to be incurable. Who knows? Maybe she'll become famous for finding the cure for Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's."

"I'm impressed. But yes… Frederica is much more than a chainsaw wielding psycho… Though, even I admit that the first time I met her, she came across as just that. When she was younger, apparently she was talented at singing."

" _Singing!?_ " Revy snorted, breaking into hysterical laughter. Rock scowled at her.

"What a useless hobby! Unless you can screw enough people to get into the big leagues, singing won't get you anywhere… And look where it got _her_! Now she can't _even_ sing!" Revy said through peals of rather mean laughter.

"Revy!? I've accepted that you're a sadistic, careless, violent, callous, narcissistic alcoholic! But don't you have any compassion? Do you have any idea how hard it is to lose the ability to do something you love?

"You probably don't because the only things _you've_ ever loved are fighting, shooting people, drinking, and money!" Rock shouted angrily. Revy stood up rather abruptly upon hearing this, knocking over the table with her beer on it, and spilling it all over the floor.

"What did you say, you limpdick bastard!? Care to repeat that!?" She shouted, shoving Rock rather harder than she had meant to. She was angry, but she didn't really want to hurt him. But Rock stepped on a bottle, and slid. The entire crew winced as they watched his ankle twist, and heard it crack as he fell and hit his head on the floor, knocking himself out cold. Dutch looked at Revy rather helplessly.

"I get that he made you mad… But did you really have to cripple him? He is an important member of the crew…"

"Ah, we can get by without him… Give 'im a night of rest, and he'll be good as new by tomorrow…" Revy said dismissively.

"I dunno, Revy. Look at his foot, it's not even facing the right direction. It's broken pretty badly. We'd better get him to a doctor… Dunno where we'll find one this late at night, but we should at least try." Benny said. Then, he looked at Dutch, and grabbed his phone.

"Do you think any doctor in Roanapur is open at this hour, Dutch?"

"Dunno. I know a few doctors that keep weird hours, so they might be open. One of them is Balalaika's mob doctor. I dunno if he'd be willing to do a job for us, but I guess the worst that can happen is that Balalaika orders our disposal at the hands of Rock's cute girlfriend.

"Wouldn't that be ironic?" Dutch said with a rather morbid laugh. He grabbed the phone, and dialed Balalaika's number. He knew that it was after 2200h, but there was no harm in trying. If they got the answering machine, or woke up Balalaika, not that much could happen.

"Hello? Balalaika here. Speak fast…" Came a disgruntled voice on the other side of the phone.

"Hello, Balalaika. I know it's late, so I apologize if I woke you…"

"No, no, Dutch. I was up, anyway. You wouldn't believe the shit I have to deal with late at night. You wouldn't be calling if it wasn't important, so hurry it up…" She said, and Dutch was sure he practically heard her rolling her eyes.

"Well, you have a doctor that serves Hotel Moscow, right?"

"Of course. All the families in Roanapur do. You don't really need a doctor, do you? Did Revy get a bullet in her finally?"

"No, no… But I'll relay your concern to her. No. Rock tripped over a bottle on the floor, and broke his ankle. I wondered if you could have the doc look at him real quick."

"Ah, Rock. Is it true? Did he really go on a date with Sawyer the Cleaner?" Balalaika asked, laughing away from the speaker.

"Yes… Amazing, isn't it? Rock seems to have a strange magnetism for the women in this town. But his ankle is pretty bad, so if we could please see your doctor sooner rather than later?"

"Of course. I'll send him over. He should be able to arrive within the hour. Don't worry about the cost. We can just work it out later. Good to hear from you, Dutch…" Balalaika said politely, hanging up. Dutch sighed.

"Revy… Rock may not be as strong as you or I, but you didn't need to break his ankle…"

"That bastard can just go die! _Nobody_ insults the great Revy-sama and gets away with it! He'll rue the day he pushed my buttons!"

"Wow, Revy… I'm impressed…" Benny said with a grin.

"You mean that I'm such an amazing person?"

"No. I mean that you knew the word 'rue'." Benny said to appreciative laughter from Dutch.

"Go fuck yourself…" Revy snorted.

"H-hn? Ow… M-my ankle… My head… What happened?"

"You were on a date with Sawyer, and you just came back, and ended up inadvertently insulting Revy. She knocked you over, you broke your wrist and hit your head… I guess even your luck has to run out eventually." Benny said. Rock sighed and nodded.

At that moment, the doctor walked in, and smiled at Rock, helping him stand up and hop over to the couch.

"Let's see… Don't worry, Mr. Okajima…

"It's just a handheld X-ray… It looks like you just had a minor fracture. I take it Miss Revy got carried away again?" The doctor asked. Revy growled at him, and flipped him off. The doctor laughed, and took out a bucket of warm water, and a few rags.

"Admittedly, it would work better with plaster, but this will do… Probably. The water causes an exothermic reaction, so it will begin to feel warm after a few minutes. It won't burn. Just don't move your ankle, Mr. Okajima…"

"Just call me Rock. Everyone else does. I've… Sort of come to like it better than Rokuro Okajima…"

"I don't blame you. An office job would be torture for me, as well. Anyway, there you go. It's not exactly unbreakable plaster, but, given your job in Lagoon Company, it should suffice. Don't worry about the bill for now. We'll deal with it later. Hold on. This will hurt. I need to set your bone.

Fortunately, it's not broken too badly, but I need to set it, or you may never walk right again. One, two, three…" And the doctor twisted the ankle, causing Rock to shout in pain. The doctor nodded, and rolled Rock's pant leg up, and began wrapping the ankle up to about the knee. After maybe ten minutes of wrapping, and molding, the doctor nodded again, and finished up.

"Take these crutches, and wait for about ten minutes before standing up. Don't fall down stairs. And, see me again in six weeks. I wouldn't advise serious activity with Lagoon Company. Congratulations, though, on your date with Miss Sawyer…"

"Thanks… Does _everyone_ know about that, now?" Rock asked. He was surprised that information travelled that fast.

"Well, everyone of import. Miss Sawyer lives with Mr. Lotton, and Miss Shenhua, so they both knew immediately. Then, you went to the movie theater. People saw you along the way. People saw you in the theater. Then you went to the restaurant. People again saw you on the way and saw you in the restaurant. Then, she walked you back here.

"I would be more surprised if people didn't pick up on it. Despite her short and slender stature, Miss Sawyer is a fairly distinctive figure in Roanapur. Many don't know what her real face looks like, given that she always wears a face mask, goggles, and a bandanna. But enough would know, that word would spread."

"Alright, alright… We get that Rock is about as clever as a rock. Now tell us what we owe you and get out!" Revy snapped. The doctor snorted irately.

"You would think that you'd be more grateful that I took time to come here for you.

"The bill is 150 dollars. It's cheap because I used makeshift materials. Pay now, or pay later. Miss Balalaika says I can trust you."

"Yes. Thank you, doctor…" Dutch said with a smile as the doctor waved carelessly, and walked out.

"Ohhh! Sawyer home! So? How you date with Rock go? He is very handsome, yes he is…" Shenhua said in her trademark way. Even as she smiled brightly, anyone could tell that she was a dangerous woman.

"Yes… Did Mr. Okajima treat you well on your first date?" Lotton asked. "He did not try to force you into anything, did he?" The man continued. Frederica smiled shyly, and shook her head.

"No. He did not do anything improper. He is a kinder man than any I have ever met. He even indulged my rather egregious eating habit. Even I must admit that he went above and beyond the call of duty for me." Sawyer said, blushing slightly.

"Why he do that…? I know Rock nice, but that just stupid, yes it is. He no should waste money like that." Shenhua said with a smirk. She was impressed, though that along with Sawyer's impressive physical skill, and appetite, she also seemed to have a pretty high charisma.

"I told him that it was my first date. That I wanted to experience a date that a normal girl would go on…" Sawyer said. For a moment, Shenhua said nothing. Rather, she was stunned into silence. Then, she burst into peals of high pitched and nasally laughter.

"And he believe you? I no think Rock was so stupid, no I don't. It no could be you first date. What he think this is? Japanese middle school?"

By this time, Sawyer had turned a bright shade of magenta, and had lost the ability to speak, even with her ultravoice. After a moment, she got the ability back.

"I was not lying when I told him that. I have never been on a date before tonight. I was very young when I was discarded, and I suppose that when that time came, dating was still the last thing on my mind. Instead, I came to Roanapur, and made a business as a cleaner."

"O-oh… I sorry… I no think that a girl with much talent as you be short on dates, no I don't." Shenhua said, slightly embarrassed, now, that she had laughed at Sawyer.

"I, on the other hand, thought the exact opposite. Her business as a cleaner, a janitor, and as a bounty hunter would keep her busy. And unfortunately, despite her admittedly exquisite countenance…"

"What mean 'countenance'? Why you speak Gibberish, Lotton?" Shenhua asked. Frederica nodded. She wasn't sure that she wanted to know, though. What was he saying? What did 'exquisite countenance' mean?

"I am saying that she is pretty. Please allow me to finish. Despite her beautiful appearance, she is preceded by her fearsome reputation as a vicious cleaner and bounty hunter. Amongst other things, it stands to reason that she would not have a great deal of experience with romance.

"So tell me, Miss Sawyer… How did the date end?"

"He… Asked me if I would go on another date. I promised myself on my way home that I would not eat as much on our second date."

"You would have to limit. He would soon be broke, otherwise. I understand Rock good with finances. He… Do some job for company in Japan, yes he did. But he no able to keep up with you monstrous appetite no he not. What you eat anyway that made him take notice?"

"I had a large popcorn at the theater. Then I had a steak and a bowl of ice cream." Frederica said. Shenhua snorted at this.

"That no much food for you, Sawyer, no it isn't. He should see you at parties. Hahaha! You eat you way through party like garbage disposal, yes you do." Shenhua said with a laugh. Frederica blushed at this. It was true, though.

She never got to eat much when she was homeless, so, she ate well more than her fair share now that she was relatively rich, and affluent in Roanapur. She exercised a great deal to keep the weight off, and her rigorous exercise showed in how strong, agile, and durable she was.

Exercise, cleaning, and murder weren't what she really loved, though. She loved singing when she was a child, and now that she couldn't sing anymore, it sort of left a hole in her life. Rock had told her of an operation that could be performed to return her voice.

The idea scared her, though. She had never liked doctors in the first place, and despite the fact that she worked around blades all day every day, she didn't like the idea of being cut.

"You're hiding something, Miss Sawyer. Please don't hesitate to tell us. We are your friends." Lotton said. Frederica jumped slightly. She still wasn't used to how perceptive he was.

"You would laugh if I told you… I do not like being laughed at." Frederica said suspiciouly. Lotton sighed.

"You really know nothing about me. I won't laugh at you. I can't speak for Miss Shenhua… But if she is really your friend, she won't either."

"Rock told me tonight of an operation that might be able to restore my voice. It is experimental, though, and not necessarily reliable." Frederica said, blushing slightly, embarrassed that she was so concerned about her voice.

"Why you be concerned about getting voice back? You scarier with ultrasound, yes you are." Shenhua said. Frederica sighed, though it sounded more like a growl.

"When I was young, I was talented at singing. I do have other talents, now. But singing was my passion. It is hard to sing when your voice is entirely mechanical." Frederica said nervously. She also used to play violin a bit, and though her talent with it had waned, she was sure she could still play if she needed to.

"You were a singer when you were a child, Miss Sawyer? That is impressive. How old were you when you came to Roanapur?" Lotton asked quietly. Frederica scowled, but sat down next to him, and took up a game controller.

"Do not call me 'Miss Sawyer. We have been friends for months, now. Call me Frederica… I was thirteen when I came to Roanapur. It is actually a long story." Frederica said, not really wanting to discuss it.

"I am honored that you consider me your friend. And that's okay. I have all night. I haven't really got anywhere to go…" Lotton said. Frederica sighed, but began her story.

"The story starts perhaps nine years ago… I lived in Berlin until I was ten. My father loved me very much. He enjoyed my singing. I had even learned to sing in multiple languages, and was getting good at singing opera. It is vital in Europe to be able to speak multiple languages, given the proximity of the European nations.

"But my mother… I do not know exactly why she hated me. Perhaps it was jealousy. She was his second wife, and not my birth mother. Perhaps I reminded her that she was not my father's one and only.

"But she picked me up at school one day, and drove me into Belgium, cut my throat, and dropped me off on a street corner, and drove away. I could not scream for help because my vocal chords had been severed.

"I lived in Belgium for about two and a half years as a homeless girl. The homeless, and especially the Romani, in Europe take care of each other. I often hitched rides with Gypsy troupes, and travelled through Europe for about two and a half years, stealing food and such. I cannot say that I ever became friends with the Gypsies. But we got along as well as we could.

"I became much stronger, and learned how to use a chainsaw, originally to cut down trees, but then, I practiced fighting with it. I also took classes in the appropriate topics, and modified the chainsaw so it could be used more easily on humans. After all, you must admit that it is not easy to use a typical chainsaw on living flesh.

"After a while, I decided to get on a ship and try my luck elsewhere. I did not know where I was going. But when the ship arrived, I was in Roanapur. And that is my story. It is not as exciting as you probably believed it would be."

"That is quite a sad story…" Lotton said, pulling Frederica into an embrace. "Just know that you always have family here."

Frederica scowled, and pushed Lotton away irately.

"I do not want your pity. If I was looking for that, I would have made my story more interesting. You asked what happened. I told you. Do not act like I am some poor helpless girl who just needs a hug. I am no better than anyone else in Roanapur." Frederica said coldly. Rock hadn't acted as though he pitied her.

She didn't expect pity from anyone else, either. Lotton shivered, and nodded, muttering an apology.

"Do not apologize. Put in Dance Dance Revolution. It is the only game at which you do not suck." Frederica said with a smirk.

Lotton nodded, and took out the disc, set up the mats, and used the controller to select a dance. Frederica stood up, and the two began to compete. Frederica had always been better than Lotton at DDR, but sometimes, he managed to surprise her with his talent. Lotton certainly didn't belong in Roanapur. He was too civilized, and mild mannered for Roanapur…

But then, Rock sort of defied description in a place like Roanapur as well. He was certainly an anomaly. He was well mannered, refined, and book smart. He had come from the business world, and had a way about him that didn't set people on edge. He was nonthreatening, and therefore, perfect as a diplomat. However, he had also gained an air about him of quiet, subtle, and understated danger.

He had proven how manipulative he could be when Roberta came around for the second time and Rock had manipulated the people and events to his own whims. He had even scared his own teammates with his cunning and efficiency. Frederica respected Rock's efficiency, and even his cunning manipulative abilities.

However, now was not the time to think about the man she so admired. She was faring poorly against Lotton in DDR, when she usually managed to beat him, even if it wasn't exactly wiping the floor with him as she managed to do in first person shooter games.

"Miss… Frederica, rather. You do not seem focused. Perhaps you'd prefer to go to bed?" Lotton asked politely. Frederica shook her head.

"I cannot go to bed yet. I must exercise, lift weights, and do some financial work for UG Pork. Then perhaps I can go to bed."

"You work too hard, Frederica, yes you do. You work out earlier today. You no need work out twice in one day…"

"You misunderstand, Shenhua. I cannot go to bed on a full stomach. If I do, it will all build up as fat. I learned this years ago. I usually work out after dinner. But tonight, my date with Rock prevented this.

"So please pardon me. I will only ride the stationary bike if you are truly so worried about my health." Frederica said, putting down the controller and heading to the stairs with a Kindle.

She usually read while she was riding the stationary bike. It gave her something to do so she wasn't just watching the miles go by. She usually did between fifteen and twenty miles in a day on the stationary.

If it was a nice day out, occasionally, she would ride through town on her street bike. She always made sure to bring a heavy chain with her, as she knew that the odds that it would be stolen if she left it unattended were high. Even if she did find who stole it and wreak her horrible, bloody revenge, she wouldn't likely get it back… Though the horrible, bloody revenge did have its perks.

As she thought this, she climbed onto the bike, putting the Kindle on the screen, and setting the resistance to 20 and the uphill rating to 10. She was going to burn calories like nobody's fucking business that night, or her name wasn't Frederica Sawyer.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"Revy! Start talkin'!" Revy snapped into the phone. Sawyer was slightly taken aback by how blunt and even rude Revy was being. Everyone knew that Revy was a short tempered alcoholic, but this was a little bit over the top.

"Good morning. This is Frederica Sawyer. Might I be able to speak to Rock?" Frederica asked.

She checked her watch. It was noon, so it wasn't really morning anymore, but the way that Revy had answered the phone, it was like she was not only monumentally drunk, but also had been asleep up to that point.

"Yeah, yeah. I can tell who it is. You ain't gotta announce your whole name. The mechanical voice gives it right the fuck away. Rock can't get to…"

" _Damnit, Rock! The doctor told you to keep your ass in bed!"_

" _Please don't be rude to Frederica. I understand that you're in a bad mood, Revy, but there's no need to…"_

" _Don't fucking tell me what there's no need to do! Get your ass back in bed! I'll tell Leatherface to call you back at another time!"_

" _Don't call Frederica 'Leatherface'! Give me the damn phone and I'll sit down forthwith."_

"Good afternoon, Frederica… I apologize for not having called you sooner. But, you know what they say… Wait three days after the first date to call… I wouldn't want to be in breach of relationship etiquette." Rock said, laughing sheepishly.

"I have never heard this rule. Is it really so vital that one not call for three days? I was simply concerned that you did not have a good time. Please feel free to be honest with me. I understand that perhaps I am not the best date…"

" _What you talking about, Sawyer? You perfect girl, yes you are! You have honest job. You have steady paycheck. You strong and strong willed."_

" _I would agree with Miss Shenhua… You should not look down on yourself so, Frederica…"_ Lotton added.

"Ahaha… I see you're not quite in agreement with your roommates, Frederica. I did have a good time on our date. You should have more confidence in yourself."

"You are a very nice person, Rock. What was Revy talking about? She said that a doctor told you to stay off your feet?"

"Um… Yeah, well… It was really more of a suggestion… I… Revy!" Suddenly, Frederica had to jerk the phone away from her ear, as Revy had taken the phone and was yelling again.

"Yeah, this pussy was badmouthing me, and I put 'im in his fuckin' place. I pushed him, an'e slipped on a bottle and fell. He broke 'is fuckin' leg! Naturally, he's gotta stay off his legs now!"

"I see. Would it be alright if I visited? I will not stay long."

"You better not… I got better things t'do than entertain little girls who've barely reached adulthood!"

"I will have you know that I am nineteen. I am not so young that I need to be babysat. I will be over in a few minutes. Goodbye."

"Good afternoon. Hello, Dutch, Rock, Benny, Revy. It is good to see you again. I have not seen most of you since I came to clean that room for you."

The group laughed nervously. They all remembered that quite clearly. The mattress was the bread and the bodily fluids were the butter. She had made that very morbid yet apt comparison, even when she didn't have her ultravoice.

"I-I guess… It's nice to see you as well, Sawyer… You really gave Jane a scare that day…" Benny said with a laugh.

"I do not blame her for being frightened. We did not get off on the best of terms. If you will all leave Rock and I alone for a few minutes. I do promise that I will not violate him…" Frederica said. Revy shrugged.

"Nah, don' worry 'bout it… Rock needs to get laid, anyhow…"

"How completely boorish! Besides! I'll have you know, I've been laid plenty of times!" Rock snapped angrily, though it was true that he had not had sex once since he got to Roanapur. He had a few girlfriends back when he was in Japan, but only one or two lasted long enough that they had sex, and even they broke up with him eventually. Rock had just been a boring person back when he was a normal Japanese citizen.

"Yeah, your right hand doesn't count, Rock."

"Bite me, Revy…" Rock snapped, flipping Revy off. "Anyway, it's nice to see you, Frederica-chan. Did you want anything to eat or drink? It is lunchtime." Rock said politely, standing and hopping over to the fridge to get some beer and pizza that was left over from the previous night.

"Unfortunately, we end up eating pizza most of the time, so we only have cold pizza. I could heat it up…" Rock finished rather lamely.

"That is unnecessary. I can eat the pizza cold, and I would appreciate the beer as well."

"How many pieces would you like? I know you…"

"Just two, please. I promised myself that I would not eat so much on our next date. So on a different note…" Frederica said, "Did you really trip over a beer bottle?"

"It was whiskey… But yes… I know it's kind of funny." Rock said weakly, stumbling and landing on his broken ankle, wincing in pain and grabbing the bureau for support.

"It is not terribly funny. Perhaps you should consider using a crutch, or a cane… A cane is good because it can double as a weapon in a bad situation…"

"Hn… I guess I never thought of it like that. But no… I don't think a crutch or a cane would do me well… Revy would have too much fun kicking them out from under me and watching me fall." Rock said in mild dismay. Frederica nodded, still with the same flat look on her face.

"Yes… I could unfortunately see that barbarian of a woman kicking your cane out from beneath you…" Frederica said, showing no more emotion than before.

"Don't worry too much about Revy…

"I broke my leg once while I was here and Revy only kicked my crutch out once. I think she got bored of it after that. Here… You can just adjust my crutch and use it…" Benny said cheerfully, running to the other room and adjusting the crutch approximately to Rock's height and handing it to him.

"Enjoy your date with Frederica… We've gotta get going. Time stands still for no man…" Duch said, walking out with the others.

"It is good to see you again, Rock. I understand that I am supposed to wait three days after the first date. But I was eager to see you again." Frederica said, actually smiling. Rock smiled nervously.

"Frederica-chan? I know this is probably insensitive, but, how do you stay so thin? I-I get that you eat a lot, as evidenced by our date, but… "

"You feel that I ate too much? I apologize for breaking the bank as they say." Frederica replied.

"No, no! That's not it…" Rock said, waving his hands. "It's just… I could never stay that thin if I ate as much as you did."

"Oh. Thank you, Rock. I exercise a great deal. If I were to stop exercising, I would gain too much weight. So… Tell me about those Romanian children. I only met them once. I knew from our one meeting that they wouldn't last long in Roanapur.

"From what I hear, you really connected with the little girl. Their lack of regard though for the pecking order would never do in a city ruled by the gangs. Even if Balalaika hadn't killed them, someone else would have.

"I met the two children once. I could see the madness in their eyes. There was no way that they would have survived in this city. They didn't understand the order of things. They would have been killed sooner or later. There is nothing you could have done."

"Thanks. But I cared about that girl. The boy I didn't know. But I still feel guilty about her death. I did everything I could to save her, to try to help her change. I was kind to her, even when nobody else in the world had been… B-but… It wasn't enough. I couldn't help her."

"There isn't anything you could have done. They made their bed, and were forced to sleep in it. You did all that you could to save her. But she was dead from the minute they came to Roanapur." Frederica said to Rock, tears actually coming to her steel gray eyes. She felt bad for Rock. He was one of the few people in Roanapur who still had a conscience.

Of course, he had moments where he became more manipulative, like the way he manipulated almost everyone when Roberta came back to Roanapur to take her revenge on the USA. Although he manipulated brilliantly, he even scared Revy with his ability and willingness. She said that he seemed completely different and that she didn't like it.

"I know… But… I connected with that girl. She may have been completely insane and evil. But… I… I just wanted to help her…"

"There is no way that you could've helped her, or her brother. They were beyond lost from the moment they were born. You can feel guilty. You can blame yourself if you must. But don't delude yourself into thinking that there's anything you could have done to save her."

"Thanks… I know…"

"You've seen some terrible things. You had to watch that Japanese girl you fell for kill herself. You had to watch Gretel, if that was her real name, get shot. So… I understand if you find yourself unable to love me.

"You never seemed to return Revy's feelings. She's pretty into you, you know." Frederica said levelly. Rock sighed and nodded.

"I became aware after a while. She's just not my type. She's too violent, she has no sense of financial management. She throws herself headlong into everything without bothering to think first.

"In short, she's strong, but more than that, she's dangerous. Her lack of caution in dangerous situations will eventually get her killed."

"I can agree with that. She is often somewhat incautious. However, although she is very strong, and I have only seen her equal with a gun in a few cases, she is liable to get hurt, rushing headlong into fights like she does.

"Have you ever considered taking a job with the Hong Kong Triad? You would make an excellent diplomat. Your job for Lagoon Company can only take you so far."

"Thank you. But… I couldn't betray Dutch, Revy and Benny… They're not just my coworkers. They're my friends."

"Revy, your friend who pointed a gun at you and made you break your leg? Who ridicules you at every opportunity? I'm not very familiar with the concept of friends, but that does not sound like a friend to me…"

"Well, I think they're about as close to friends as I have… In this city, anyways."

"What about me? I can't remember the last time I've had a real friend. But I would like to try being yours. If you will not be my lover, perhaps you could at least be my friend?" Frederica asked, looking uncommonly vulnerable at the moment. Rock couldn't help but empathize with her.

He silently laughed at himself. Empathy was an incredibly rare trait in Roanapur. It was a city ruled by three mafias, and overrun with corrupt officials, criminals, and general low lives. One could probably count the good guys on two hands, assuming they were being generous with their definition of "good guy".

Rock had become significantly less empathetic toward his fellow man over his time in Roanapur, and had shown himself to be extraordinarily manipulative on occasion.

"You… Want _me_ to be your friend? I'm not any better than anyone else in this town." Rock protested. "I'm just as evil, manipulative and selfish as anyone else."

"How can you say that? You've been a single ray of light in a dark town in the time you've been here. Everyone makes mistakes. Few can admit to it." Frederica said, showing an uncommon amount of emotion. Usually, her voice was completely mechanical. Now, her voice had a waver in it that was all too human. It was humbling to Rock to hear her speak so well of him.

"You're kidding, right? When Roberta came back to Roanapur to get revenge, I manipulated everyone… Including you, including the mafia, including a 12 year old boy that just wanted to get his caretaker back. I took advantage of everyone. I behaved more shamelessly than I care to believe. Even Revy was shocked… And that's saying something…"

"And now, you're admitting to it. And I still want you, Rock. With all your flaws, with all your shortcomings. I don't know about love. But I like you. You're a good person, regardless of being imperfect. I wouldn't want you so much if you were perfect." Frederica said, her voice becoming slightly less monotonous. Rock blushed slightly. It was flattering that Frederica thought so much of him, but he wasn't sure what to say.

"Would you like to go on another date? I need to get used to this crutch, anyway." Rock said, reaching for the crutches and struggling to his feet, hobbling out, with Sawyer, who, although she didn't smile, Rock felt sure that she was happy.

"I would ask you to go for a run with me, but it's obvious that you cannot. Perhaps when your leg heals."

"I would like that. Perhaps you could ask Shenhua if she could teach me how to use knives. I plan to be able to use a gun as well, but knives are useful in a variety of situations, namely stealth tactics… Something… Neither you, nor Revy can really aspire to, given your very loud weapons." Rock said with a mild laugh.

"That is true. A chainsaw is not terribly well suited for silent kills. Fortunately, I do not need to kill people silently most of the time. My job is to murder people in the most gruesome and flashy way possible to send a message."

"I see. Well… Why did you choose a job as a cleaner?"

"I didn't. The Chinese Triad chose me. They found me because I was highly efficient with using a chainsaw. I learned to use a chainsaw as a weapon in Germany because of stricter gun laws. I was only a minor, so if I was caught, I would be returned to my mother and likely arrested. Since I was travelling with Gypsies, neither they nor I were considered reliable, and many of us had criminal records.

"Guns were not a viable option, so I learned to use alternate weapons that would scare an enemy as well as being lethal. I modified a chainsaw to work effectively as a weapon. What about your country, Rock?" Frederica asked. Rock sighed.

"Well, guns are illegal in Japan. But, somehow, the Yakuza still manages to get them. It's said that there are as few as two gun related deaths per year in Japan, but that statistic might be slightly inaccurate."

"I see. We should go out… You can at least get used to walking on your crutches." Sawyer said, smiling. It used to be that Rock was unnerved by Sawyer smiling. It usually meant that someone was about to be sliced and diced or at least shredded apart by her chainsaw, which she wielded with frightening skill. But now, she looked almost vulnerable when she smiled. It was kind of cute.

Rock looked at himself in the mirror. Had he really just described Sawyer as "cute"? She was a lot of things. Pretty, strong, terrifying, professional… But, he was pretty sure that not many people would call her "cute". She was, though. As dangerous a woman as she was, there was a certain innocence that you could see if you scratched the surface. As the two walked down the stairs, or in Rock's case, hobbled, he couldn't help but smile at Frederica.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"I have a job, tonight, Rock, so I have to get going, soon to prepare." Frederica said in her tinny, mechanical voice. Rock nodded.

"What kind of job is it?" He asked. Frederica seemed hesitant for a moment.

"It's a job for Balalaika. I am not certain what exactly the job entails, but I can only assume that it includes intimidation, murder, or a similar purpose. I excel at such jobs, so it shouldn't be difficult."

"Okay. Please don't kill the person, though." Rock said. He knew that he couldn't really ask that of her. That was just what she did. That was her job, to kill people in gruesome and inventive ways to send a message. Sawyer sighed. It was a grating, rasping sound.

"You know I cannot promise that. If Balalaika orders me to kill this person, then I must kill them. You are free to come with us. Balalaika said that I could bring you if I wanted."

"Thank you, but I think I'll pass. I wouldn't be much good. I'm on crutches."

"I understand. I will tell you what happens as soon as I can. I honestly don't want to kill the person, either. I have nothing against them. But, they stole from one of Balalaika's subordinates. She can't just let that go."

"I see. Well, a job is a job. I've probably done worse things than intimidate some low level hoodlum. As long as you're getting paid, right?"

"Right. I am glad that you understand." Sawyer said, kissing Rock and heading back to her apartment. They would be getting more news on the job soon.

"Are you certain that this is where she lives, Shenhua?" Balalaika asked. Shenhua nodded.  
"Yes. I walk her home other day, yes I did." She said, taking out a tiny knife and picking the six locks on the door, opening it without making a sound. As they walked in, they came across a tabby cat. 

"Shenhua... Kill the cat. Don't worry about it being bloody. A lesson needs to be learned." Balalaika said coldly. Shenhua nodded, moving silently behind the cat and slicing its tail off first. It would have cried, but the scream died in its mouth when Shenhua bent down and slit its throat as well.

"Are there any other pets in the house?" Balalaika asked. Yolanda, Sawyer, and Shenhua spread out and found a fish tank with some exotic fish in it.  
"Hmm... These are expensive fish. None of them could have cost less than 1,000 dollars." Yolanda said gently, taking a jug of bleach and pouring it into the water, watching for the minute and a half that it took for the fish to die and rise to the surface of the tank.

Frederica found two small dogs. Both of them seemed happy to see her. They ran up to her, licking her hand as she offered it to them. She smiled, feeling bad that she had to kill these dogs. They hadn't done anything wrong, but business was business, and she was being paid 1,000 dollars for this tiny job. How could she refuse? She had only been asked not to kill the woman. Nothing had been said by Rock about pets.

"I am sorry, dogs. But this is just business." She said, twisting one dog's neck and breaking it. The dog yelped in death, and fell to the floor. Frederica looked into the other dog's eyes, calming it briefly, before lifting it up and filling the sink with water, and pushing the dog's head under. The dog thrashed and cried, though its screams were unheard due to the water. Finally, it went still, and Frederica continued holding it under until it stopped breathing. Checking its heartbeat, she found it to be dead.

"Good. Any other pets?" Balalaika asked. Yolanda and Frederica continued to look around, and found a snake, a bird and a rabbit. This woman really loved her pets. She had probably stolen most of them, as she didn't seem wealthy enough to buy most of them. The snake was of Asian descent, the bird was from Africa, and the rabbit seemed like it might have been from anywhere. This was especially true since the apartment she lived in was kind of a dumpy place, even for Roanapur.

Balalaika took out some pellets and fed them to the rabbit, watching dispassionately as it ate them, then began to gag and choke. Finally, it vomited blood and fell over, clearly dead. She then took a silencer and put it on her pistol and shot the bird, and put the snake in the freezer where it couldn't escape.

"Good. Now, Frederica. It's your turn. We need to alert Miss Stanford of our presence." Balalaika said with a maniacal grin.  
"Yes." She said, taking out her chainsaw and revving it into life.

Upstairs, the roaring of the chainsaw woke Anita, who jumped out of bed, grabbing her glasses and her handgun and running downstairs. She had very little training with guns. Most of her skill was in hand-to-hand combat, and she was only a red belt in Karate. But she would have to make do. There was a good chance that these were just petty thieves, like her, looking to make a quick buck.

"P-p-put your hands up! NOW!" Anita stammered, holding the crew at gunpoint. Balalaika laughed at this.  
"How cute. A young gunslinger. Perhaps she has more spirit than I thought."  
Anita fired the gun four times, but all four were blocked by Frederica, who swung her chainsaw with the practiced ease of someone far out of Anita's league.

"W-what do you want!?"  
"I... Can answer that. Look around you. Your two dogs, your cat, your snake, your bird, and your rabbit… Are all dead. We could take you next. Miss Sawyer has been given full discretion as to how to kill you should I order it. However… Before you go thinking we're slavering monsters with nothing on our minds but murder, consider how you look to us.

"You took some things from one of my Komrades. They were very important to him. And now, you're going to return it, and if you're quick about it, you may live to see tomorrow. We don't really want to kill you. You're extremely pregnant, and it would be a crying shame to murder a child before it was even born. But, I'm going to need you to return the items you stole immediately."

"W-w-what was it I stole? I-I steal a lot of things... N-n-nobody suspects a pregnant woman of anything, so I can usually steal without anyone n-noticing."  
"A silver picture frame, a gold charm for a necklace and a silver lighter with the Soviet Union symbol on it. Hopefully you haven't… Pawned them just yet?"

"N-n-no, ma'am!" Anita replied, hurrying upstairs and returning a few minutes later with the three items, handing them to Balalaika, and hoping that she wouldn't decide to kill her just because she wasn't fast enough.  
"Hm... Very good. Now, let me make something very clear to you. If you ever cross Hotel Moscow again, you'll have to watch as your innards are torn out by Miss Sawyer here. Do we understand each other?"

"Y-y-yes, Ma'am!"  
"Good, then we're done, here." Balalaika said, showing an unusually whimsical side of herself.  
"W-wait... W-we are?"

"Yes, completely done. Keep our warning in mind, and enjoy the rest of your night." Balalaika said with a smile, heading out as Sawyer shut down her chainsaw and followed suit, along with the rest of the crew.

"Well? You get you ass back to bed, yes you do! I not here on fanny call, no!" Shenhua shouted critically as Anita turned tail and ran upstairs. She knew that she wasn't going to be getting any sleep for the rest of the night.

It would probably be pointless, but she needed to upgrade her security system. She knew that nobody would care if her alarm went off. But she needed to set up some traps in the doorway. Or something like that.

"Should we clean up the animals? They won't do her much good." Sawyer said. Balalaika shook her head, grinning.

"No. In fact, I think we need to leave them in places where we know she'll find them at the worst possible times. Hm… Shenhua, check the snake in the freezer. We've been here for more than an hour, I suspect it will be dead by now. If not, fill the sink with hot water, and submerge it."

"Ooh, snake very tough one, yes it is!" Shenhua said, taking it out and stroking it under the chin to approving hisses from the snake.

"I sorry, Mister Snake, yes I am. But boss lady say I must kill you. I could take home instead, Balalaika?"

"Not a chance, Shenhua. I won't have anything to do with snakes." Sawyer said with a grimace.

Shenhua shrugged and finished filling the sink, and pushed the snake under, making sure to hold its mouth shut so that it couldn't bite her, and holding it for a minute and a half until it stopped breathing, and taking it out.

"Where I should put it now?"

"Hmm… Put it in the refrigerator. Sawyer, put the bird back in the bird cage. Yolanda, put the dogs on the couch, if you would. Let's see… I'll put the cat… On her bookshelf."

"And the rabbit?" Yolanda asked. Balalaika thought for a moment.

"Shenhua, cut up the rabbit and throw the pieces anywhere." The leader of the Russian mafia said with a grim smile.

Shenhua laughed and started cutting up the rabbit very meticulously, taking a particularly sharp knife and skinning it, hanging the still wet, bleeding fur on the window, and taking out a frying pan, and removing some butter from the refrigerator, ignoring the snake and cutting several pieces of butter, throwing them on the skillet, turning on the heat to high until the butter sizzled and throwing strips of rabbit on the skillet, cooking it skillfully, occasionally throwing on some herbs and spices.

After about an hour, she removed the rabbit strips and put them in a Tupperware container and writing out a note in English that she had made breakfast for Anita.

"Ahaha… You really do have a mean streak, don't you, Miss Shenhua?" Yolanda asked. Shenhua smirked and cleaned the dishes, putting them away.

"Let's go. Leave the blood on the floor, Sawyer. It will be a good reminder to her when she's cleaning up dried blood stains from the carpet." Balalaika said, striding out of the home, locking the door behind them.

"AAAAAGGHHH!" Anita shrieked as she opened the refrigerator and found the fried strips of rabbit and her dead snake. Already, this was the second time her heart got set racing. She could have gotten past the blood on the carpet, but then the dead dogs on the couch, and the snake and strips of rabbit in the refrigerator… These women were just insane. The bird, she was less shocked by, simply because it had been the third time.

But seeing her snake practically boiled in the refrigerator and fried rabbit really took all the dwindling energy that remained out of her. She didn't even have the energy now to make herself breakfast. But she couldn't eat Hecate. She would have to cremate all of her pets. Burying them just seemed too religious. She had been an Atheist ever since she entered middle school. For some reason, though, that chainsaw wielding woman was really pretty.

She had an ultravoice, but something about her was just really attractive. She sort of wanted to find her again. She had a boyfriend in America, but… He was such a jerk. She just couldn't bring herself to abort the baby. But she needed to get out of the country, so she went to a place where she could steal without penalty. Unfortunately, she hadn't quite gotten the hang of the pecking order in Roanapur.

She was a pretty accomplished thief, but she needed to get used to the way things worked in this city of thieves, murderers and lowlifes. Maybe she could get in contact with this woman that the women had called Sawyer. There was no guarantee that she would be interested, and honestly… There was no guarantee that Anita wouldn't be torn apart by Sawyer's chainsaw. Still, it couldn't hurt to try.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"Excuse me… Sorry to bother you, but… Might you know this woman? I think her last name is Sawyer?" Anita asked, holding up a picture that she had drawn of Sawyer. The man looking at the picture couldn't deny that it was an excellent picture, right down to the scar on the girl's neck.

"I… Uh… I fhink I shaw her wif shome guy in a white shirt and tie… Real stiff, he was, but she looked happy. 'Fraid I don' know'er name." He said, lisping through several broken teeth.

"Ah, I see… Thank you." Anita said politely, turning and going into a restaurant.

"Excuse me… Do you happen to know a woman named Sawyer?" Anita asked uncertainly. The Maître-D nodded.

"Ah, you mean Frederica… Well, Miss Sawyer… She's a cleaner for the Chinese Triad… Mr. Chang. Go to U.G. Pork. She's probably working her day job at the moment."

"Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."

"Oh, um… No problem…" He said, adding to himself that he didn't think anyone had ever gone to this much trouble to seek Frederica out. As pretty as she was, people usually avoided her like the plague unless they needed cleaning work done.

Anita hurried around town, finally making it to a large industrial building, and hurrying in, hearing blood curdling screams from the adjacent room. She sighed and knocked on the door. Soon, the grinding and the screams stopped, and a person of unknown gender in scrubs, a large smock and complete protective clothing, including a shower cap and goggles and a face mask.

The unnerving looking woman looked quizzically at Anita, and walked out, removing her goggles and face mask.

"Are you here to get revenge? If so, I would suggest that you leave… For your baby's sake." She said in her mechanical, but somehow gorgeous voice.

"Um… You… Have blood on your cheek."

Sawyer felt her left cheek, blushing slightly and wiping it off, and scrubbing her hand on her smock.

"Sorry… Anyway… I do not wish to fight you. I was merely doing my job last night, and seeking revenge on any of us will only put you in my chamber. And I won't hesitate to do my job."

"Um… U-um… N-no… I-I… I just had to say that… Well… Y-you're really beautiful… Watching you using your chainsaw last night was breathtaking… A-and not just because of the gasoline that it released into my home…"

"I murder your pets and threaten to kill you, and you try to hook up with me?" Sawyer asked, feeling more than a little confused by this. After a moment, though, she shrugged, and laughed briefly.

"I am afraid that I am spoken for. I am flattered, though. I need to go for a walk after this job… Killing twelve year olds is part of my job, but that does not make it any easier to kill the relatively innocent." Frederica said, going back into her vivisection chamber and removing her murder suit, going to the shower, and washing herself off, paying no mind to the fact that Anita was there and staring quite blatantly.

After a few moments and washing her hair with a strange smelling shampoo, she got out and put a gothic looking getup on, smiling at Anita and heading out the door, Anita fast in tow.

"You are not planning to rob me, are you? You look ready to pop any day, now, and I wouldn't want to kill you and your baby."

"Where are we going, Miss Sawyer?" Anita asked. Sawyer shook her head.

"Please, call me Frederica… Or Sawyer, if you prefer."

"Sawyer, then… Where are we going?"

"To a friend's house. My friend broke his leg. His friends are a little eccentric, but they're pretty nice. Whatever you do, don't turn your back on or insult the woman with the ponytail. That's how my friend broke his leg." Sawyer said with a smirk. Anita gulped. Maybe this town wasn't the best place for her.

"Here we are. Lagoon Company." Sawyer said, going inside and knocking on the door.

"Lagoon Company! Please come in!" Came a friendly voice from inside in a fairly strong Japanese accent. Anita was surprised, though she knew she probably shouldn't be. It was a fairly diverse population here. Americans, Taiwanese, Natives, Europeans. Everyone gathered here and was more or less equal.

"Hello, Rock… I brought over the woman we did our job on last night. This is Anita Stanford."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rock… I-is that your first or last name? Anita asked, confused.

"It's my nickname. My name is Okajima Rokuro. So… They didn't harm you?"

"Well… No, but they murdered all my pets and one of them fried up my rabbit and left it in the refrigerator for me for breakfast, I suspect."

"I see… Let me guess… There was an Asian woman with a heavy accent, a Russian woman with scars all over her body, an elderly nun and Frederica."

"Yeah! H-how'd you know!?" Anita asked.

"The Asian, Shenhua, is Frederica's roommate. The nun, Yolanda is the head of the Ripoff Church, and Miss Balalaika is the leader of Hotel Moscow. Plus, Lagoon Company hears a lot of rumors and information through the grapevine. Please, come in. I'd offer you something to drink, but I can see that you're about to give birth."

"Maybe just some juice or water?"

"Well… I wouldn't advise drinking the water, here. I made that mistake and paid for it for a week once. But we might have some bottled water." Rock said, pushing himself up and moving over to the refrigerator.

As he went into the kitchen, Revy, the woman with the ponytail came out still completely naked.

"Eh? What are you doing here? And who's this bitch?" Revy snarled, not bothering to cover herself.

"E-excuse me, Miss… You do know that Mr. Okajima is still here, right?" Anita asked timidly. Revy sneered at her.

"Yeah? So?"

"Well… I-isn't it only polite to cover yourself in the common area?"

"Ah, for what? Ain't nothing he hasn't seen already! Besides, he's too much of a pussy to try anything. Knows I'd castrate him if he did!" Revy laughed meanly.

"We do have some bottles left. Here you go, Miss Stanford." Rock said politely. Anita laughed nervously.

"Please, just call me Anita."

"If I'm not mistaken, you're from the American Northeast?"

"Yes… Massachusetts, actually. I lived in Provincetown for a while. It was very liberal there, but… Nothing quite like this." Anita said, stumbling across the room.

"Do you… Mind if I sit down? My back is killing me."

"Sure… Please. So, Frederica… Did you just happen to run into Anita?"

"She found me… I assumed that she was going to attack me. But she actually started coming onto me."

"So you assault her in her home and she tries to pick you up? An interesting turn of events."

"Oh, don't judge me, asshole… I know what you Japanese people get up to, with your sisters and your cousins and all that weird tentacle porn!"

"Ahaha! I'm not sure what you think you know about the Japanese, but I can assure you that whatever you've heard is drastically exaggerated. While incest is not as uncommon in Japan as it is in America, and cousin marriage is technically legal, you're mostly referring to the Japanese anime subculture, which is not in any way representative of most Japanese people. Actually, Japan is a much more traditional country, regardless of what the young generation has in terms of culture.

"Perhaps bother to study a culture before you go spouting off such bullshit about it like it's gospel truth." Rock snapped angrily. Anita drew back, shocked at Rock's sudden vitriol.

"S-sorry…"

"It's alright. Just like 80s rockers don't represent what Americans looked like, anime doesn't represent how Japanese people behave.

"You just need to look at the fact that most anime characters, despite being Asian, are quite white, have Caucasian features, including a wide variety of eye and hair colors. Japan has a very homogenous population. 98.5% of Japan's population is Japanese. There's a minority of people from other Asian countries, but most Europeans and Americans are there on business. The appearances of the Japanese really aren't as diverse as anime makes them out to be.

"Honestly, I thought everyone knew that. I mean, does Marvel Comics represent the average appearance of an American? Half the characters have green eyes, while only about 1-2% of people in the entire world have green eyes."

"I see… I didn't mean to offend you. Maybe I will learn more about Japan. I have time, I guess… Though, I'm going to give birth soon, is there a hospital in the area that's safe to go to?"

"Well… Most doctors in Roanapur are hired out full time to one of the crime families. But there is a hospital at the Ripoff Church. They might charge through the nose to deliver your baby, but they have clean facilities." Rock said politely.

Suddenly, Anita's eyes widened, and she gripped her stomach.

"Anita… What's wrong?"

"My water just broke!" She gasped. Revy sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Just go outside. I don't want to have to pay for repairs to the hotel."

"Revy! Just grab her and start running!" Rock demanded angrily. Revy snarled back at him.

"What!? I ain't carrying this bitch! What do I get out of it?"

"*Gasp!* I'll give you 1,000 dollars! Is… Is that enough!?"

"Sold!" Revy said with a wild grin, sweeping Anita off her feet and running to the window, leaping, and landing perfectly and running as soon as she hit.

Revy picked up speed at an alarming rate, the town whipping by, even as the purple haired woman turned corners, seeming not to slow down at all, and making it to the hospital in only maybe five minutes, despite the fact that she had probably just run all the way across town. She ran into the hospital and dumped Anita on a stretcher, shouting angrily for a doctor.

"Now, I'll hold your tab for now, but if you don't make good on your offer, I'll use you as target practice!"

"You're a very angry woman, aren't you, Miss Revy?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BITCH, OR I'LL GUT YOU WITH A RUSTY FUCKING SPORK!" Revy screamed as the doctors rushed Anita away to the delivery room.

Revy laughed as she left. 1,000 dollars for doing a little bit of running. That was the easiest damn paycheck she'd ever gotten, and it was all hers. She did all the work, so naturally, she didn't have to share the money. She could buy all the beer she wanted… Actually, Rock had suggested on multiple occasions… Almost to the point of nagging in her opinion, that she set some money aside for emergency situations.

Maybe she should consider setting half of it aside. 500 dollars would still be plenty of beer money. Or she could spend the 500 on bullets. But she got bullets from her normal jobs, and still had huge amounts of bullets back at the hotel. Revy sighed and sat down in the waiting room. She was sure that the blonde bitch would need help getting home as well, and she could charge her again for that help.

"Oh, Miss Revy, you're still here? I'm touched that you waited. That was really nice of you. Did you want to see my baby… Well, babies?" Anita asked, pulling aside a pink blanket and a blue blanket.

"This is Leopold, and this is Phoebe. They're beautiful, aren't they?" Anita asked, tears flooding her bright blue eyes. She was covered in sweat from the delivery, but the babies looked very healthy.

Revy looked down, initially in disgust at the two babies. But, something about them were disarming. They looked so innocent. Was it jealousy that she was feeling? That they had something that she had lost a long time ago? Was it empathy? What on earth would she need something as worthless as empathy for?"

"May I… H-hold them?" Revy asked, scowling, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

Anita seemed hesitant for a moment.

"Well… A-as long as you promise not to hurt them…"

"You don't trust me… Smart girl. Well, let's get you home… Do you have anywhere set up for the brats?" Revy asked. Anita nodded.

"Yeah, I've been ready for two months. I couldn't risk the babies coming early and being unprepared… Maybe… I could pay you to help me out around the house a bit? I'm… I'm willing to pay well, Miss Revy…" Anita said nervously. Revy sighed.

"S-sure… I… I have to tell you, though… I'm not good with kids. I don't even like kids… But… I guess I can't refuse a paying job."

"Thank you, Revy. Maybe we could bring Rock into it. He seems like he'd be pretty good with children… I just have to ask that you don't smoke or drink in my house. I won't risk my babies' health."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Did you pay the damn doctors?"

"Y-yes, ma'am." Anita muttered, letting Revy wheel her out of the house, and directing her to her own apartment building.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"AGGHH! CRAP!" Revy snarled furiously. "I can still smell those little brats' shit! Shit and cry! Shit and cry! That's all they ever fucking do!" She screamed as she stormed in the door, tearing the 1,500 dollars out of her pocket and sticking 500 in an envelope in her drawer and labelling it _Revy's money. Touch it and you die_. Rock looked at Revy, shocked that she was actually saving money.

"Hey, Revy… How did your job go? You've been gone for a long time."

"That fucking bitch asked me to babysit her brats! I had to change diapers, feed the brats, set up their cribs… What am I? A mercenary or a housesitter?"

"Well… You made 1,500 dollars off your work. Why complain? Oh, are you saving your money?"

"Yeah, yeah! I put 500 dollars away in an envelope, and if you touch it, I'll fucking castrate you!" Revy snapped angrily.

"I have no interest in your money. I'm glad you're finally starting to think ahead." Rock said, wondering how long Revy would actually save for, or if she would just spend the money a week later. Regardless, it wasn't really his concern.

"So, how is Anita?" Rock asked. Revy growled.

"Fine… Unless she fucked up again and got her ass killed this time!"

"I doubt she'd be so foolish. She mentioned that all her pets were killed, and she was threatened with a chainsaw abortion. I'm fairly certain that she'll behave as it were. She seems to have a fairly strong sense of self-preservation, unlike someone I could mention. Speaking of which, I need to go out. I'll be back in a few hours probably."

"Hey! Where are you off to in such a damn hurry!?"

"I'm visiting Frederica. She should be off work by now." Rock said, shutting the door behind him and heading toward Frederica's apartment at a decent pace, despite his cast and crutches. Revy growled, still annoyed that Rock was going for another woman.

Revy didn't feel like trying to get revenge on Frederica, though. She probably couldn't beat her, anyway. She was fairly sure that Frederica could block all of her bullets, and if she got too close to Frederica, she would get torn up by Leatherface's chainsaw. She could fight a little bit with her fists, but for the most part, her gimmick was her guns.

"I come in moment, yes I do!" Came Shenhua's voice from inside. Moments later, she opened the door, revealing that she was in nothing but a towel.

"Oh… Um… You could've gotten dressed first. I've got nowhere to be." Rock said, blushing slightly.

"No, you too much prude, yes you are! Come in. You here see Sawyer?" Shenhua asked. Rock shook his head.

"Oh. Why you here then?"

"I want to talk to you." Rock said. Shenhua's eyes widened.

"I no sleep with you, no I don't!" Shenhua said, slapping Rock hard across the face.

"No, no." Rock said, laughing nervously, trying to smile. "I wanted to ask you to teach me to fight with knives. I'm already taking some lessons from Revy with guns."

"Oh, you want be fighter. I think you better as diplomat." Shenhua said, frowning. "Sawyer be back soon."

"Well, could you teach me to knife fight anyway? In the very likely event that my words won't be enough."

"Okay. I teach you, yes I do. You need be stronger. Come back when leg healed, and we begin lessons. Ah, Sawyer! You back already from shopping?"

"Yes. Hello, Rock. How are you? It's a nice day, I'm glad to see you out and walking. Are you here to see me, or on business?"

"I'm here to see Miss Shenhua. I asked her if she could teach me to fight with knives. I started training with Revy with guns a month or so ago, and… Well, I'm getting better. I still can only use a 9 mm, but my aim is better, anyway…" Rock said, laughing sheepishly.

Sawyer laughed as well, her laugh grating on Rock's ears.

"Oh, you no should ask Miss Twinky for anything. She no be much help, no she don't." Shenhua said in her slightly broken English.

"She's actually a decent teacher, Miss Shenhua. Harsh, but talented."

"But what you do when run out of bullets? Twinky no think that far ahead. When out of bullets, she run at enemy and punch. She good at punching, strong, fast, but no good at planning. You right come to me. I teach you all I know about knives.

"First, you stand still." Shenhua said, walking up to Rock and pacing around him, looking him over like a piece of meat, feeling his muscles. Finally, she grabbed his shoulders, and kneed him as hard as she could in the stomach, driving the wind violently from his lungs, causing him to collapse, gasping for breath.

"What… What the… *GASP!* Fuck was that for!?"

"Shut up, student! You no back sass me! You need do sit-ups and core strengthening exercise every night. I have instructions if need them. How far you can run?"

"Maybe a kilometer if I was pressed?"

"That no far enough. Need be in good physical shape. Fast, nimble. You none of those things.

"You scrawny businessman. That no good anymore. And you smoke."

"So, you want me to go running every day, do situps and stomach strengthening exercises at night… Oh, and I don't smoke anymore. I quit a little while ago. Too expensive a habit."

"And lift weights. That good for guns as well. Need strong arms to resist gun kick yes you do! I no start knife training until you leg completely healed. We understood?"

"Yes, Miss Shenhua… OUCH!"

"That Master Shenhua you!"

"Y-yes, Master Shenhua. Oh, and I quit smoking a few weeks ago. Didn't want to waste the money."

"That better, yes it is! Now you go home, start exercising! By time I see you next, you better be stronger, able resist my knee of death!"

"Yes, Master Shenhua."

"Good. Now get out!"

Rock nodded and headed out quickly before she decided to assault him again. Frederica laughed as Rock closed the door.

"You were having fun with that, weren't you?"

"Maybe just little bit." She said with an evil grin.

Frederica sighed. She honestly wished that Shenhua wouldn't act so belligerently towards Rock. But that was just who she was. As long as Frederica had known Shenhua, she had been prone to violence and threats of violence.

"So, Rock wants to learn to fight?" Frederica asked. Shenhua nodded.

"I don't know why. I liked him better as the peaceful individual that he was."

"I no blame him. His words get him far. He saved whole Roanapur from crazy maid bitch use words. But there those like Twinkie that no hear words, only hear weapons. He no need to become homicidal maniac just because he know how use weapons. What martial arts you think he know?"

"I'm… Not sure… I don't think he knows martial arts." Frederica said uncertainly.

"What you mean? Of course he know martial arts! He Japanese."

"I don't think it works that way, Shenhua. He's a businessman. He may have taken some martial arts when he was younger. But I have the feeling that he was always more cerebrally oriented than most citizens of Roanapur.

"I would suggest teaching him martial arts that take into account his less athletic orientation." She finished, trying to think of a martial art form that wouldn't require immense strength to utilize.

"Hmm… Capoeira… No, that no good with knives. Karate? That maybe work. What you suggest, Sawyer?"

"Mm… Silat, Tantojutsu, Shurikenjutsu… There are many knife and throwing weapon styles. But really, you should just teach him your styles, if any."

"Hmm… You right, Sawyer!" Shenhua said, snapping her fingers.

"Shenhua… Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" Sawyer asked, looking uncommonly vulnerable at the moment. Shenhua smiled.

"Sure, you ask me anything you want, Sawyer… But not my measurements! They my secret."

"No, no… How do you keep yourself looking so beautiful?"

"What? This just way I look… A little makeup, some eyeliner… You beautiful! Come in bathroom with me!" Shenhua said, pulling Sawyer into the bathroom.

The Taiwanese woman parted Sawyer's hair, looking into her eyes.

"Mm… You have good lipstick on… Blue-grey eyes, yes… Black or blue eyeliner work well, yes it do… Brush hair… Find nice clothes."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Sawyer asked, feeling terribly embarrassed that Shenhua was inspecting her like this.

"Nothing wrong. You dressed casually. There nothing wrong with that. You need formal dresses for dates, and fancy occasions, yes you do… Ahh… Yes, yes… There… A little powder… Cover up scar… You look perfect. Look in mirror." Shenhua said. Sawyer looked uncertainly in the mirror.

"I… I look amazing…"

"Yes, I kiss you right now if you no taken."

"Thank you, Shenhua… Maybe you could teach me how to apply makeup?"

"Of course… We need get you nail polish, yes we do. It no need be expensive. Just a good color for you. Blue or gray be good colors. Maybe purple, match clothes."

"Maybe… That could be fun…" Sawyer said. Shenhua nodded, looking at Sawyer's fingernails.

"First we need clean you nails. You have pretty hands, but no take care of nails. They ragged and dirty." Shenhua said, shoving Frederica onto a chair and taking out a nail scrubber, wetting it and rubbing soap on it cleaning Frederica's nails completely. When she was done with that, she dried them off and started filing them with a rough file first, moving down to a medium, then a fine file, admiring her work. Frederica had very tough nails. She could probably use them as weapons in themselves.

"Shenhua… How did you learn to do that? You're very good at this."

"Mother wanted me take after her and be beautician. I run away and become assassin… Still I keep nails clean, though. I never manage to shake that, no I didn't." Shenhua said. Frederica nodded.

"What colour nail polish you want?"

"Mm… Plum? There's some plum in my shirt."

"That work maybe… But I think blue, or black, colors of your eyes and hair. Shirts change. Hair and eyes no change. Here, I have some blue nail polish…" Shenhua said, taking out a bottle of it.

"I make it myself." Shenhua said, inspecting the nails and running them under hot water, wiping them off with soap as well.

"You nails need be clean on top and inside so nail polish adhere correctly, yes you do."

"Okay… I… Guess I'm not used to all this girly stuff."

"It no girly take good care of nails. Many men get manicures, too… My mother did many men's nails. Mostly businessmen, but regular men look better with nice nails too, they do."

"I see… Thank you, Shenhua… This is… Really nice of you."

"I teach you how make love as well, if you like…"

"No thank you. I appreciate the gesture, but I think Rock would take exception to that."

"Suit yourself…" Shenhua said, holding Frederica's fingers tightly, making a stroke on her thumb first, finishing each nail before moving onto the next one. Then, once they dried, she went back and did a second coat.

After the second coat, she put on some clear nail polish to make sure that it didn't chip as easily, then waited for it to dry. She then pushed Frederica in front of a mirror, inspecting her hair.

"When last time you get haircut. You no can do nothing with this mop on you head…" Shenhua said critically. Frederica blushed slightly.

"I'm usually in full slaughter suit. I don't really need to worry about my hair.

"I cut it maybe once a year at most, and I do that myself."

"I see… Get it cut every six to eight weeks at most." Shenhua said, shoving Sawyer's head in the sink and wetting her hair, combing out her hair, and making a snip here and there, finally telling Sawyer to look in the mirror again.

"I look completely different. Will Rock even recognize me?"

"You voice make you very recognizable. He no be able to miss you." Shenhua said bluntly. Sawyer nodded numbly.

"You're right. Rock said something about voice box replacement surgery. He said it's possible, but still in its infancy. Do you think he would like me better if I had a more pleasant voice?" Sawyer asked.

Shenhua laughed at this question.

"If he no can accept you for who you are, why you should change yourself for that kind of man… He no kind of man if he no can accept you as you are…"

"I know. But… I used to be really good at singing until my throat got cut."

"That good. Why you no ask Rock? He love you, really, he answer you honestly, yes he do."

"I'm… Embarrassed to ask. He'll think I'm insecure." Sawyer muttered, though her muttering was still clearly audible, given how mechanical it sounded.

"You don't need to be insecure, Sawyer… I apologize for interrupting you. The door was open. Sawyer, you're a beautiful young woman. You're talented, you have a steady job… Perhaps a slightly gruesome one, but a good job… Any man would be lucky to have you."

"You more gentleman than this town used to, Lotton." Shenhua said. Lotton sighed at this comment"I know. But, I won't change that aspect of myself. I didn't really come here because I was evil, but because I liked the relative freedom that this town offered."

"You too nice be killer. Consider different line of work, yes you should."

"I know. I need to find a decent job so I can start paying for my stay here."

"That would be nice, yes it would. But no hurry to change yourself. You could try be host at bordello down street."

"I don't think I would be well suited for that, either. I'm too clumsy. You look good, Miss Sawyer. Did you choose the makeup and polish yourself?"

"Thank you. No, I always wear lipstick, but Shenhua chose the eyeliner and nail polish. I was going to use plum colored polish to match my clothes. She suggested blue to match my eyes. I'm still not sure about this whole thing, but Shenhua cut my hair, too to clean me up."

"It looks good. Just because you're a cleaner doesn't mean that you can't dress up a bit."

"Shenhua is right. You really are too nice for this town.

"I always thought Rock was as well, but he at least became a little bit darker in his time here. You seem to be the same good-hearted, slightly clumsy man you were over a year ago when you first arrived here. I suggest you at least pick up some form of martial arts, or learn to shoot your Mauser a little better." Sawyer said critically. "Maybe take lessons along with Rock. I'm sure Revy or Mr. Chang would teach you if you paid them."

"Is Mr. Rock paying Revy for his lessons?"

"I'm not sure. I have not asked. It doesn't seem important. Surely you can pay whatever Revy would charge."

"Probably… Depending on how much she charges. She seems to be a greedy individual… I wouldn't be surprised if she charged through the nose for her tutoring."

"I wouldn't either. It's sad, but Revy is a lost cause. Rock tries to help her with introspection and caution, but she's much too far gone for that."

"Perhaps. It's still quite noble that he tries. I believe I will attempt to get her help. I would be no good with knives. Miss Shenhua's line of work would do me no good. Revy would be the better option."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Lotton knocked on Chang's door, thinking that perhaps it would be best to opt for the more understanding teacher first. One of Mister Chang's subordinates opened the door.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"I'm afraid not, sir. This should only take a few minutes. If I could be allowed in?"

"Let him in, Yuen! He seems like an amusing sort. Actually, you carry yourself more like a gigolo than a killer. What can I help you with…? Well, first, what's your name?"

"I'm Lotton. I've worked with Miss Shenhua and Miss Sawyer in the past, but I don't believe I've ever done any jobs for you, sir."

"Hmm… Respectful, at least. What can I do for you, Lotton?" Chang mused.

"Up to now, I've been using Mausers. I understand that you're the man to speak to about dual wielding guns. I mostly just spray the area with bullets. I was hoping that a man of your talent could help me learn greater marksmanship and finesse." Lotton said, bowing deferentially. Mister Chang laughed at this.

"There's no need to grovel, Lotton. I'll have you know, I don't take screw-ups or people that aren't serious. Are you serious?" He asked, lowering his sunglasses and looking serious for a moment.

"Yes, sir."

"Well, good. I've trained others in the past. Revy is one of my success stories… Not personality-wise, but talent-wise, definitely.

"However, I haven't really got the time right now to train a complete beginner. First of all, come over here. Punch me… Don't worry, Yuen. He won't be able to hurt me. Come on. Give me your best shot."

"Are you… Certain, sir? It doesn't seem wise to assault a mob boss."

"Unless he's told you to do so, you're absolutely right." Chang winked.

"Okay…" Lotton sighed, still uncertain. He balled his fist and struck Chang as hard as he could in the stomach, driving Mister Chang back a few steps.

"You're stronger than you look… I guess you would have to be to handle the recoil on an automatic weapon. You need to be stronger, though." Chang said, punching Lotton back, driving the wind out of him rather severely.

"Sit-ups, pushups, that core exercise with the wheel, running, acrobatics… Any and all of those are good exercises. You don't look terribly agile or dexterous. I suspect that you're a bit of an oaf… Clumsy. And I don't have time right now to work with beginners. Honestly, I would advise becoming stronger all around. Some martial arts courses could help.

"Go and ask Revy for her help first. She'll get you started… And ditch those vulgar Mausers. Sell them if you like. They might help pay for your lessons. Revy's help doesn't come cheap. I hear she's even charging her teammate, Rock for her tutelage."

"Yes, sir. Thank you for the advice."

"Excuse me, Miss Revy…" Lotton called, knocking on the door.

"Yeah!? Who the hell are you!? Waddaya want!?"

"My name is Lotton… You shot me in the chest once."

"Yer gonna hafta be more specific. I've shot lots of people in the chest." Revy laughed.

"I was working with Miss Shenhua and Miss Sawyer to assassinate Jane."

"Huh… Not ringing a bell… Anyway, Whaddaya want?"

"Could you teach me to shoot a gun? I… Have some modest skill, mainly in using an automatic Mauser and spraying an area. But I feel it would be good to have some actual marksmanship skills."

"Ya've come to the right person! You've got quite an eye for true talent! C'mon in, and we can work out my fee." Revy said cheerfully, smacking Lotton on the back hard, driving the wind from his lungs.

"I really must tell you, Miss Revy, I'm not wealthy. I don't have as lucrative a business as Miss Sawyer, nor am I as talented as Miss Shenhua… I hate to demean you and I both by asking you to accept less, but perhaps you could accept a more modest fee for now, and I can pay you back once my skill improves?"

"I think I can work with that. Rock is banging your roommate, Leatherface, and for some reason, you strike me as an honest person… I've been screwed on that front before, but I'm gonna be generous and trust you. We can work on 100 dollars a week for now, and you can pay me back the other 300 a week once your bounty hunting picks up later. I won't even charge interest!" Revy laughed loudly, managing somehow to seem magnanimous in that moment. Lotton gritted his teeth, determined not to call her on her crude and unkind reference to Sawyer.

"That's… Very generous of you, Miss Revy." Lotton said dubiously. That was still a lot of money. One hundred dollars a week. He could potentially afford that, but not easily.

"What kind of gun do you use?"

"I've always used dual Mausers, but I'd like to learn a more elegant gun, if such a thing can be said of a gun." Lotton said sheepishly.

"It's all in how you use the gun. If you're looking to dual wield, I suggest 50. Caliber Hmm… How nimble are you? Do a flip. Yeah, right here."

"I couldn't if I wanted to, Ma'am."

"Mm…" Revy said, grimacing with contempt. "Rock has the same problem. He's running every morning, now, though. I learned most of my acrobatics through trial and error… I hurt myself a lot along the way… I suspect a klutz like you would just kill himself trying what I do every day.

"Take some martial arts classes… Don't ask me what types you should take. I've never done actual martial arts, though I could probably kick just about any karate dork's ass if I wanted to."

"Oh… Lotton… What are you doing here?"

"Ah, Rock… I was petitioning Revy for her help in learning to shoot a gun."

"Don't you use Mausers, though? Not much need for marksmanship. Just point and spray." Rock said. Lotton nodded.

"Well, at the moment, yes. That's my entire strategy. But I wanted a more elegant style. I need to start making better money. I don't like mooching off of more talented people."

"I see… So, you're asking Revy for training. It makes sense."

"Yes. Do you know of any martial arts classes I could take? I'm afraid I'm quite hopeless. I never got past orange belt in Karate, back in Canada, and most guns are illegal in my home country, so I never really learned much in the way of weapons or marksmanship. Rifles and shotguns are legal, but only for hunting. You see my quandary, yes?"

"Yes… Well… Freerunning would be a good way to learn more flexibility and nimbleness. Capoeira is what Fabiola used in conjunction with her gun to fight. It was self-taught, but effective to a point. Silat is mostly used for bladed and throwing weapons. Ninjutsu is a traditional Japanese martial art, and can be used with almost any kind of weapon you could imagine. It's largely up to you to decide the style of marital arts, if any, you want to use.

"Street fighting seems to have worked for Revy. I suspect she's largely if not completely self-taught, though she may have had some training from Mister Chang, given her choice in weapons."

"Hey, Rock! How do you know so much about martial arts?"

"Oh, well I made it to red belt in Karate before I quit. I… Seem to have lost most of my skill in the art. But I suspect I could pick it up again. I'm taking some Silat, Capoeira and Freerunning courses at the moment. I'm only a beginner in all of them, and I haven't gotten around to actually running in Freerunning. I'm mostly doing strengthening exercises and working on flexibility currently, learning some theory.

"It could be as long as two years before I really get to actual running, depending on how hard I work. I had hoped that you would help me with making myself stronger… You seem to know what you're doing, Revy." Rock said nervously.

"Why don't you get Leatherface to help you with that? Your cast should be coming off any day, now, and she's strong enough to swing that chainsaw around like it's a stick."

"I have considered doing that. But I had hoped to keep myself to as few tutors as possible. Already, I have you, and I have a Capoeira/Freerunning teacher, and a Silat teacher. Soon, I'll have a new teacher in Miss Shenhua."

"You're learning to use knives?"  
"Well, not right now. She said I needed to get stronger before she would teach me."

"Ahahaha! She's got that right. Hold on! Yeah! What is it?!" Revy demanded on the phone.

"Hello, Miss Revy. I'd like to see Rock again soon to check on his leg's progress. I suspect that his fracture should be healed soon, if not already." The doctor said. Revy nodded.

"Yeah, yeah! I'll drag 'im down soon!" Revy shouted. The doctor made a sound of dissent.

"Good. See you… In an hour, say?" The doctor asked. Revy agreed and called Rock over.

"Hey… Rotten!"

"It's Lotton." Lotton said.

"Whatever… We're leaving. Get out. Run every day, I would suggest taking some damn martial arts lessons, make yourself better at fighting. I'll be teaching you to fistfight as well."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll take your advice." Lotton said, leaving and closing the door on his way out. Revy grabbed Rock's hand, dragging him along. Rock grabbed his crutch and limped along with her.

"Hey, Doc! We're here!"

"Jussst a minute…" The doctor said, holding up a finger, and leaning in with his tweezers and putting on the last piece of the model ship.

"Sorry… Had to finish this model ship in a bottle. Couldn't let the glue dry. Come on over to this X-Ray machine, Rock, we'll check out your leg." The doctor said, turning on the X-Ray machine, putting a lead vest on Rock to protect his upper body from the radiation.

"And… Here we go… Rock, look at your leg. It's almost completely healed. I suggest you continue to take it easy for another week to allow any residual damage to disappear. But then, you should be fine. You're a very fast healer."

"Thank you for this. Here's the money I owe you for the visit."

"Oh, don't worry about that. It's been paid. They wish to remain anonymous, though."

Rock didn't notice Revy blushing at the mention of his anonymous benefactor.

"Oh… Um… Thank you. Well, have a good day."

"Remember, no running, no kicking or heavy lifting with your legs. Any exercise you may be doing can wait a week."

"Thank you, doctor. Have a good day." Rock said politely, rolling down his pant leg, but not before inspecting his leg, touching it.

It was still a little tender to the touch, but that would probably go away in time. As Rock stepped on his foot for the first time in weeks, he grimaced slightly at the sensations that were going through his foot. He put some more pressure on it, feeling a strange tingling sensation.

"Is it normal to feel this tingling sensation in my foot?" Rock asked. The doctor nodded.

"It's not uncommon. You haven't had any pressure on it for four weeks. It may have only been a minor fracture, but regardless, the bone is reset, and you'll be fine, but you'll need to get used to it again. Expect some tingling and numbness. Keep walking, and you should be fine by tomorrow. Don't worry about it, Rock.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"Okay! Sit-ups! Now!" Revy demanded. Rock and Lotton lay down on the floor, and began doing situps as well as they could without any pressure on their feet. Rock seemed to be doing better than Lotton, who seemed to have no facility for exercise whatsoever.

"Come on, you fucking Canuck! Get going! You too, Rock!" Revy ordered.

"Miss Revy… Canuck isn't actually considered offensive by Canadians. It's just the name of a Canadian hockey team from Vancouver… I'm from Calgary, Alberta."

"Shut the fuck up, dumbass! If you have breath to run your mouth, you aren't working hard enough!" Revy snapped. Rock seemed to be far ahead of Lotton in terms of core strength, which seemed odd, since Rock was such a peaceful person, and didn't seem given to intense exercise.

"Yes, Miss Revy." Lotton said, going back to his sit-ups. Revy smirked.

"That's better. Keep going! When your stomach can't take it anymore, take a five second break, and go back to sit-ups!" Revy ordered. Lotton started doing sit-ups again. It was agonizing at this point. Rock seemed to have an easier time of it.

"Come on, Rotten! Even Rock is doing better than you! What does _that_ say?"

After about half an hour of straight sit-ups, when both men's stomachs were killing them, Revy ordered them to stand up.

"We're doing target practice, now! If you don't get at least five bullseyes, every half-hour, you're out! I don't work with losers!"

Rock started shooting, and got very close to the bullseye right away. Lotton tried, and didn't even hit the target. This training went on for two hours. Lotton got around eight bullseyes, while Rock got around thirteen. Lotton looked over to Rock. Rock looked back at Lotton.

"Rock… How do you manage to be so talented at sharpshooting?"

"I'm not. I take my time on my shots for now, though. There will be time in the future when I need to aim and shoot quickly. Now is not that time, though. You're rushing your shots, when you don't need to." Rock said calmly, putting his shoes on, and changing out of his work clothes, and into running clothes. The truth was, although he said that he had only been working with Revy for a short while, it had actually been more than a month, and he knew that they were going running now.

Already, given that he didn't smoke anymore, his lung capacity was improving a great deal. Although Revy could still run harder and longer, she coughed a lot after a long run. Rock had suggested that she cut down on smoking, and drinking as well. That was only met with a punch to the stomach and the suggestion that he go fuck himself.

Nothing he could do, really.

"You better get your running clothes on…"

"Right now?"

"Yes, right now. We're about to go running."

"In front of Miss Revy? Doesn't that seem inappropriate? Especially since you have a girlfriend, and I barely know her?" Lotton asked, wondering if he could undress in front of Revy.

"I don't think she'll care. She was a porn actress in a previous occupation. Not much bothers her. She's seen it all." Rock said, shrugging. Lotton shook his head, and grabbed his running shorts, going into the bathroom to change instead.

"What a pussy…" Revy sneered. "Can't even find the balls to change his clothes in front of others. Bet he was that one kid who went into the bathroom stalls to change after gym class."

"There's nothing wrong with being considerate of others, Revy. Here he comes, now." Rock said as Lotton came out of the bathroom in running shorts and a tee shirt.

"Fine… We're taking a five mile course today. You better be able to run at least 2 and a half of those miles… That's 2.5 miles straight."

"Um… Miss Revy… I hate to seem like the naysayer, but I haven't done any serious running in a while."

"Then what are you doing here? Either conform or get the fuck out, bitch!"

"Yes, ma'am."

"At least he knows how to respect his betters." Revy said dismissively, slipping into her shoes, and heading out to the fire escape and jumping down, landing perfectly.

"No need to hurt yourself. Even Revy doesn't expect us to do that yet. If you did, you'd probably hurt yourself. Come on. The door is over here." Rock said, heading quickly down to the street, knowing Revy wouldn't want to wait.

"Faster, weaklings!" Revy snarled angrily, cracking a leather switch on Rock and Lotton's backs, yelling at the two of them. Lotton cried out, in pain, though Rock, having gotten used to her abuse, didn't make a sound. "Come on, pussies! If you can't keep up with me while I'm jogging, how do you expect to get anywhere?" Revy demanded angrily.

Rock gasped, continuing through the stitch in his side. Lotton had slowed down multiple times, never stopping, but rarely going as fast as he potentially could for fear of burning out and being kicked out of Revy's training.

"H-Hard… To believe… This *Gasp!* is the woman who's in love… With you." Lotton commented.

Rock nodded.

"Revy just… Has a… Hard time expressing… Her emotions in a healthy way." Rock replied. Lotton nodded, continuing, slowing down a bit, while Rock sped up just a slight bit, pulling ahead of Lotton. Rock had been using an odometer to make sure that he had the 2.5 miles done before he slowed to a fast walk, catching his breath.

"Come on, pussy! You're being held to higher standards than this gigolo wannabe!" Revy shouted at Rock, who sighed and started running again. This process of speeding up, slowing down, being verbally, and occasionally, physically abused by Revy went on for another hour or so until the sun started setting, and Revy dragged the two men back to the apartment building, where they worked on marksmanship again for an hour before Revy kicked Lotton out, and he trudged his way back to Shenhua's home.

After about an hour, having moved slower than usual, he made it back to his apartment, where he stumbled into the room, staggering his way to the couch, and collapsing on it. Shenhua came in a few moments later, not having bothered to put a towel on, thinking she was alone.  
"Ah, Lotton? You home so early, yes you are. I no think you be here for 'nother two hours, no."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Shenhua… Could you get dressed? I find you incredibly attractive, but it's not appropriate for me to be in the…"

"You too much prude, yes you are. You like Rock. Handsome, but stiff… And no in good way, you get my meaning."

"I do. I'd get up myself, but I'm likely unable to move."

"Oh, that no problem, no… I do acupuncture, yes… You lay down on bed… I carry you if need to…"

"I couldn't have you carry me, Shenhua. I appreciate the acupuncture, though. Does it work for overworked muscles, though?"

"Don't know. I use it for lot of things. Relieve pain, cause pain, loosen muscle, stiffen muscle, torture, open chi paths, block chi paths… Many use, yes. No certain if use for sore muscles. Relieve pain, though. I think you stretch tonight first, though, yes."

"Of course…" Lotton said, sitting down on the floor, and going through what seemed like it was probably a long held stretching regimen.

Kneeling and laying back fully, along with a long procession of other stretching, which, even as Shenhua watched, having quite forgotten to get dressed, now, was impressed. She had always considered herself more flexible than she was strong, but Lotton's ability to stretch was still impressive.

"You quite good stretching, yes… That gigolo practice?"

"I told you. I'm far too clumsy to be in that line of work. And please get dressed." Lotton said, standing up feeling better already.

"You such prude. Why you no want see beautiful lady nude?"

"Fine… I'll leave. Come in when you're dressed if you still want to do the acupuncture."

"I be in ten minutes. No less, yes." Shenhua said, turning around and going to her room, while Lotton went into his room, lying down on the bed. About fifteen minutes later, Shenhua came in with a box of needles wrapped individually. First, she ordered him to take off his shirt and pants. He only needed his boxers on, since she assumed he didn't want to strip completely in front of her.

She started with acupressure, hitting a few pressure points, cracking a few joints, and realigning his spine. Then she moved onto the needles, heating each one with a lighter, then sticking them in him. She truly had the eye of an assassin. She performed acupuncture with such precision. Finally, she finished with the needles, and slowly began to remove them. When she was done, she took them to a chemical bath to sanitize them.

"Thank you, Shenhua… I feel much better."

"Oh, it no problem, no! You much welcome." She said with a cheerful smile, just as Sawyer walked in.

"You welcome home, Sawyer… What that in you hands?" The assassin asked. Sawyer blushed slightly.

"It is a gift for Rock. His birthday is coming up. I bought him a kerambit."

"Kerambit? That good gift, yes… But it no help much in soon future. He while go to using knives. Need training first, yes. He be firing guns sooner than throwing knives, he do."

"Oh…" Frederica said dejectedly. Lotton walked in, having just put his clothes back on.

"It's still a very nice gift, and I'm sure he'll appreciate that you thought of him. That will matter more than the practicality of the gift. I always got neckties and dress shirts on my birthdays. But the time I was twenty, I had more than I knew what to do with. My family always assumed I was going to be a businessman. The shirts came in handy, the ties, not so much. But I always appreciated them regardless. In retrospect, I think my brothers and sisters didn't know what else to get me."

"That sad story, yes it is. They no able think of more creative gifts than ties and shirts? They boring, yes… When you birthday?"

"Birthdays are unimportant. Trivial celebrations of just another day of the year."

"No… I'm certain that we can find a more suitable gift for you, Lotton…" Frederica said sternly. Lotton sighed.

"Well. Miss Sawyer, my birthday is in three weeks… June 3rd. My family always joked about it being the same date as the June Rebellion's end."

"June Rebellion? I no hear of that, no I don't." Shenhua said, scratching her head.

"It was a rebellion in France that came about as a result of the French king's uncaring attitude toward the proletariat. A small group of students roused a rebellion of about 3,000 people to try to kill the king and overthrow the government. Needless to say, they were crushed brutally, and executed for their treasonous actions." Lotton said. Shenhua laughed at this.

"They idiots, yes, oppose king with so small force!"

"Well… It was the people of France. Unfortunately, most of the people were still cowed by the king's power. They weren't ready to die for the cause. The rebellion was actually started by a bunch of students who faced off against French military by barricading themselves.

"After the death of General Jean Maximilien Lamarque, a group of students and other poor and proletariat tried to accompany the hearse back to Lamarque's home, and the group formed into, along with a number of other people in the crowd, into a mob, that fought French forces. Some say the group numbered as large as 100,000, though that's unlikely. It's more likely that people were so awed by the fact that commoners rebelled against the military, that they exaggerated their number.

"Many of them may not have been able to estimate a number as large as 3,000 either. They were just common people with a small number of guns and ammunition, opposing a huge military force. But this rebellion went down in history, and eventually, that king was overthrown… Or so it's believed…"

"Wow… They brave, but stupid! They no even buy mercenaries fight for them?"

"They were commoners. How could they have afforded mercenaries, especially ones of yours and Miss Sawyer's talents? They could barely afford to put bread on the table." Lotton said, scowling. Sawyer nodded, and headed out to do her daily run. She had just eaten a lot, and needed to run it off.

Rock went to a table and started fiddling with some eggs, drilling a tiny hole and pushing a tube into it. Revy's eyes widened slightly as she heard a hiss and a yellow goo dripped out of the egg, and Rock set it aside.

"What the fuck are you doing, Rock? Why are you spending money on eggs just so you can drill holes in them?" She demanded angrily. Rock laughed, and took a completed egg and handed it to Revy.

The purple haired woman looked the egg over.

"Don't crush it. It has ground up glass, pepper, gun powder, sawdust and a fuse in it. It makes an excellent short to mid-range weapon." Rock said. "You light the fuse and then wait for it to burn halfway down, throw it at the enemy, preferably at their face. The pepper causes sneezing and discomfort, the glass blinds them, and the sawdust creates fire while the gunpowder explodes.

"The opponent won't know what hit them. It's cheap but effective." Rock said. Revy's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Wow! That's really cool! I guess you do have moments where you're not as much of a pussy as usual!"

"Mm… Yes… Well, I'm making as many as I can. I suggest you hold them carefully. Put them in a place where they won't get jostled. I've lacquered the eggshells multiple times so that they don't break as easily. But they'll still shatter if they get jostled too much."

"Cool! How did you get this idea!?"

"Oh, Miss Shenhua… She practices ninjutsu to a certain degree… Not extensively, but she uses thrown weapons, and what is this if not a disposable thrown weapon? It's a bit like a miniature grenade." Rock said cheerfully. Revy nodded.

"So, are you making these for her?"

"No. I'm going to sell most of them. Bet I can make as much as 50 dollars off of one, but I'll sell them for 30 dollars individually. I'll supply Lagoon Company with a cache of them so that we can benefit from them." Rock said, turning back to the eggs, cursing as one of them cracked, and split open, oozing yolk.

"Hey, dumbass! Get that goop away from the floor! We don't want ants!" Revy demanded. Rock nodded, wrapping the egg in plastic and throwing it away.

"Sorry…" He said, moving onto the next egg, gently drilling a hole in it and putting the air burster in it, liquidizing the yolk, pouring it out into the garbage and setting it aside to dry.

"This is boring. I'm going running and you're coming with me." Revy said. Rock looked at her.

"Why? I just went running this morning. I'm even starting a relatively mild Freerunning course.

"Actually, I've already told Shenhua about these, and she's interested in buying some of them. I need to get going." Rock said, slipping the eggs into individual cotton padded holders and putting them in a plastic bag. Revy counted ten in all. He then started slipping twenty more into another set of cotton holders and putting them in a separate bag, labelling it Hotel Moscow.

"Whoa! You're selling these to Balalaika!? Maybe you really do have a pair after all!" Revy laughed. "How much you sellin' em for!"

"Well… Individually, they're 30 dollars. But, for ten, I'll let them go for 250. For twenty eggs, I'd be happy to sell them for 500." Rock said. Revy started cracking up at this.

"Wow! Selling eggs for 500 dollars! Next you're gonna try to sell Mr. Chang the Brooklyn Bridge, right!?" Revy laughed hysterically.

"No. This isn't a confidence scam. You're underestimating how effective these eggs are. Here. Let me show you." Rock said quietly, taking an egg that was labelled with a P.

"This is just a pepper bomb with a tiny pressurized sac in it that will create an air burst when the egg is broken. It will be uncomfortable, but not deadly or even long term. The worst that happens is irritated eyes, sneezing, coughing." Rock said, lighting the fuse and waiting for a minute. Then, he threw it at Revy's face, and it burst, pepper spreading everywhere. Revy gasped, sneezing furiously, rubbing her eyes, and by the time she was clearheaded again, Rock was gone, having left a note.

 _See? I told you they work. Check the cabinet. There's a gift for you in there._ Rock wrote. Revy was pissed off that Rock had done that to her. But she checked the cabinet. There was a bottle of Bourbon and a bag with ten eggs in it.

 _The eggs are completed bombs. Careful. Even if they're not lit, they have ground up glass in them._

 _-Rock-_

"Good morning, Miss Balalaika. I came to deliver the package you asked me for." Rock said. Balalaika smirked.

"Mm… You're a fast worker, Rock. I respect that. You only told me about this egg bomb project a few days ago. Are you sure that they work?"

"I've tested some non-deadly prototypes of them filled with pepper and an air burst sac. If you have someone to test them on, I could show you that they work." Rock said. Balalaika actually laughed at this.

"I've been wondering how we should punish this particular individual… She just doesn't seem to know her place. But, she's a new mother, and I would hate to see her children suffer just because she's stupid."

"Don't tell me Anita stole from you again?" Rock asked, not liking where this was going.

"Oh, yes… She tried to steal from Boris this time… Tried and failed to pick his pocket. I don't know if it's just arrogance, or if she really didn't realize that he was one of my men.

"Either way, it can't go unpunished. I won't have people believing we're going soft."

"That wouldn't do at all, would it? Well, bring her in, and we'll test the weapon on her."

"You know, I like you, Rock. You had so much potential when you first came here. I could see it in you. An intelligent and cunning mind, a desire to prove yourself… A certain disregard for the rules set by society, but a bureaucratic mindset.

"You walk that fine line between savagery and order very well." Balalaika said to Rock, smiling at him.

"Thank you, Miss Balalaika." Rock said, as a woman was dragged, kicking and screaming into the room.

"Please! I-I swear I'll never steal from you again! I'll leave Roanapur tonight and never come back!" Anita begged, tears streaming down her cheeks. Balalaika took out a cigar and cut it, lighting it up, taking a long drag before exhaling and speaking.

"You got that right, sweetie. Rock, would you do the honors of showcasing your new product for me?"

"M-me?"

"W-wait! Rock!? Please! Help me!" Anita screamed.

"Yes, you… You're the salesman right now. Prove to me that your admittedly brilliant project works." Balalaika said dispassionately.

Rock gulped, nodding and standing back, borrowing a lighter from Balalaika and lighting the fuse. He knew he was going to feel guilty about this. He didn't mind that Balalaika and her people did these things. Part of the natural order and whatnot. But he didn't necessarily want to be part of it… But he was part of it. It was his life too, now.

"Now, you light the fuse, and wait for it to burn about a third of the way down before throwing it. You should really be standing about ten feet away to avoid any backlash from the explosion. Once you throw it, step back another five or so feet and cover your eyes, mouth and nose. This, of course, is under optimal circumstances. There may be situations where you're using them in combat, and you won't be able to take such precautions. Just do what you can in those to avoid hurting yourself." Rock said.

He then lit the fuse, and stepped back a few feet, throwing the egg at Anita's face, hitting her dead on as the gunpowder went off, lighting the sawdust and creating a loud "bang!" Anita shrieked in pain, rolling around covering her burned, bleeding face, and now blind eyes. Balalaika clapped, impressed.

"I will take as many as you have available."

"I can sell you twenty for right now." Rock said. Balalaika thought for a moment.

"Very good. How much do I owe you?"

"500 for all twenty."

"500… Well, they are very effective. How about 400…?" The Russian mob boss asked. Rock didn't generally haggle, especially with women whom he knew could kill him just as easily as look at him.

"That's fine. Here you go, Miss Balalaika. 20 egg bombs for 400 dollars."

"Hmhmhm… You still have a lot to learn. You definitely could have gotten more money out of me for these bombs. You offered them to me for a good price, acted as a good salesman, displayed their use in spectacular fashion."

"I might have been able to. But I don't make it a habit to argue with people who can rip my head off without breaking an 85 on the heart monitor."

"Ahahaha! So you didn't press your advantage because you're scared of me! Well, you should be scared of me, Rock… But you don't need to be timid in my presence, either. Here's your 400 dollars. Have a good day." Balalaika said cheerfully. It had been a while since she had this much fun. Rock really was an interesting person.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Hey! Cousin Fucker!" Anita shouted, bursting into Rock's and Revy's hotel room. Revy looked at Rock.

"Bitch must be talking to you. You're the Jap here." Revy said casually as Anita aimed a gun in Revy's direction. Revy laughed at this.

"I'd aim that gun elsewhere, Miss Stanford. Revy could kill you five ways to Sunday before you even knew you were dead. Keep that gun pointed at me." Rock said, holding the gun to his temple, moving quietly to his pocket to take out his knife, and moving behind her, grabbing the gun and throwing it to Revy, who grabbed it out of the air, laughing.

"Now, Miss Stanford, I don't want to kill you. You've got kids to take care of. I'm sure that Dutch would be willing to take you and the kids out of Roanapur for a fairly reasonable price. You don't have a hit on your head. You're not a threat to us or anyone… Except yourself. The threat level on you is low. I suggest you remove yourself from Roanapur. You never really were meant to be here, I take it." Rock said. Revy growled. She didn't feel that Rock should be making promises in Dutch's stead.

"Thank you, Cousin Fucker. But I came here for one reason. To get revenge on you. And I'm not leaving witho…" *Bang!* A loud sound went off from the far side of the hotel room. Revy had just fired her gun into Anita's knee. The poor blonde woman fell to the ground.

"You've got more guts than I expected of some dumb blonde bimbo…" Revy said with an evil sneer. "Too bad I'm gonna have to rip em outta you." The purple haired woman laughed.

Anita whimpered, crawling away, only to have her knee stomped on by Revy, who ground her boot on the wounded leg.

"A-aagh!" Anita cried out in agony as she pushed the bullet deeper

"Revy! Stop! She's learned her lesson!" Rock protested. Revy laughed.

"She ain't learned her lesson till she's dead! Bitch thinks she can threaten you! Only I get to threaten you, damnit!" Revy snarled. Rock sighed.

"Listen, Miss Stanford. You might just want to stay down. It's not likely that you'll be able to beat her in a fight… Especially being crippled as you are right now. Revy, stop attacking her. Ah! Dutch…" Rock said, relieved and turning to Dutch, who waved at Revy and Rock, looking down and seeing Anita on the floor. Revy growled and took her foot off of Anita, who pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Mr. Dutch… I need you to take me and my children out of Roanapur. I've already been warned by Miss Balalaika, and now that I'm blind… Thanks to your Cousin Fucker of an employee…"

"Um, Miss Stanford, I've never…"

"Shut the fuck up! I don't trust myself to be able to avoid trouble with Hotel Moscow. So, if you could take me… Maybe to Japan or someplace like that?"

"Well… Japan is a bit far, and if you go around calling everyone 'cousin fucker', I'm not sure they'll take kindly to you. The closest country would be further inland in Thailand. Maybe Bangkok. We could also take you to Singapore or Malaysia.

"Here's a map of the South China Sea… We could take you this far out…" Dutch said, pointing to the Philippines. "We could do that for 10,000 dollars. Or we could simply take you to Bangkok for 5,000 dollars. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, and is much more lawful. You could probably find a hospital there that could take care of your injuries."

"I'll go to Bangkok… Fucking sharks…" Anita muttered angrily. "I need a fucking wheelchair…" She continued. Rock sighed.

"I have some crutches. They're about the best we can do for you. You can have them, since Revy is the reason you can't walk." Rock said, hurrying into the other room and bringing Anita his old crutches, adjusting them to her height.

"I have to go back to my apartment to get my kids. I'll be back here tonight to get going. I'll have the money then, okay? Cousin Fucker!"

" _Don't_ call me that!" Rock snarled angrily, his fists clenching. "You can call me Rock, Rokuro, Okajima… There are a lot of names you can call me. Cousin Fucker isn't one of them!"

"Fine… Okajima… Wanna come with me to pick up my shit. I haven't got a lot, since Scarface and her friends came and tuned up my home."

"What do I get out of it? I can assure you, I am not your friend, Miss Stanford."

"God, fucking vultures! Fine… 200 dollars. That's more than you'd make in an entire day working in an hourly job! If you don't take it, I'm sure I can find someone who will."

"200 dollars is plenty. I'll help you." Rock said coldly, putting his shoes on and retying his tie.

"I'm coming with you!" Revy shouted, putting her guns in her holsters and strapping them onto herself. "I don't trust this blind whore! She may not be able to see her tits in front of her face, but I won't…"

"Great… We can use all the help we can get. As long as you're not asking for more money, I don't mind your help." Anita said, walking out of the room.

Revy sneered and leapt out the window, landing on the hard ground below. Rock sighed and took Anita out the front door.

"There's really no need for her to jump out the window. She just likes to show off." Anita sneered at Rock, but said nothing as the three of them went to her apartment, and started packing up. Rock walked around, doing his part of the work, handing bags to Revy as they filled up, and having her stand outside.

She seemed to have no intention of actually packing, but she was going to make herself useful. They had brought a car along to put the stuff in, so when they finished, they packed everything in the trunk and drove it down to the Lagoon Company boat, bringing it all on board.

"Hey, Revy… I have a deal for you… If you help me pull off one more heist, I'll cut you personally in for 50%." Anita said, smirking in the exact opposite direction of Revy.

"Where were we going to rob?"

"I was thinking a bank, but if you'd prefer a private citizen, we can do that too."

"No. A bank will have far more money. I know just the bank to rob. It's not protected by any of the three mafias. Hard to believe. But they'll wise up when they're robbed."

"I know the bank you're talking about. They have strong security, but I've been scoping it out for months. We just need enough firepower. Do you have any of Cousin Fucker's egg bombs?"

"Yeah. Rock! Do you have any bombs that just explode?"

"Just use grenades for that… The egg bombs are for crippling the enemy." Rock protested. "Besides, they cause unwanted injury to people."

The group pulled up at the dock, taking all her stuff to the boat, grabbing some guns and grenades, distributing them, then getting back in and going to the bank.

"Hey!" Revy snarled angrily, taking out her guns and shooting into the air.

"This is a fucking robbery! Put the fucking gun down, guard jockey!" She screamed, shooting at the guard, wounding his arm, but not doing any serious damage.

"Go ahead… Try it… I dare you…" Revy whispered, turning to a young man, grinning maniacally. She prodded him under the chin with her gun.

After a moment, she kicked the man in the face, stealing his gun as it flew out of his hand, and he fell to the floor, gripping his clearly broken nose.

"Okay, listen up, fuckers!" Anita said calmly. I want the tellers to put the money from the safe in these six duffel bags. I expect you to fill them completely full. I have a professional with me who will know if any of them are light.

"I can assure you it won't end well for you. Got it, sweetie?" Anita asked the female teller.

"Y-yes, ma'am…"

"Good… Then get your ass to it, bitch." Anita said, a smile splitting her scarred face. She had several missing teeth and the scars on her face wrinkled grossly. The teller turned away, but nodded, running to the safe, filling up the bags as quickly as she could and dragging them back out to Anita.

Anita, Revy and Rock took the bags out to the car, and left, Revy shooting one of the guards in the knee, saying that he had been looking at her funny the whole time. Rock and Anita seriously doubted this, but they said nothing as Rock drove to the shore, where Revy took three of the bags into her own room and held out her hand, demanding the 5,000 dollars. Anita nodded and paid Revy, who handed it to Dutch.

The crew moved all her stuff to the boat, and started taking off. Anita winced in discomfort as the salty ocean air blew in her face. Her scars had begun to heal over, but they were still fairly fresh. She had been told by the doctor that she should continue to wear gauze bandages during the day on her face, and keep an antibacterial on her face at night while she slept, let it air out, but not let it get infected. She was taking heavy duty antibacterial drugs.

She now had approximately 6 million dollars in her three duffel bags. Revy had also made off like a bandit in the night. Having split the profits in half with Anita, Revy now had 6 million dollars. She looked pretty damn happy about it, too. She didn't even seem to care anymore that Anita had threatened Rock. Anita retreated to the bottom deck to put new bandages on, and came back up, sighing in relief.

After two hours, they made it to Bangkok, where, upon making it into the harbor, Revy took out her guns.

"Leave the other three bags, bitch." Upon seeing Anita's shocked face, Revy laughed.

"Come on. You didn't really expect to be able to keep the money, did you? What work did you do? Barking orders like you owned the joint? Getting a pushover like Rock to help you drag the bags out to the car? You didn't do shit."

"But how will I survive?"

"Not my problem, bitch… Drop the three bags, and I'll let you leave with your brains still in your head. Otherwise… Well, you gotta decide the better option, don't you?"

"No. I'm not leaving the money. I need this money." Anita said, taking out a huge automatic rifle and aiming it at Revy.

Revy laughed, then went completely silent, moving around the boat behind Anita and pulling the trigger on her gun. Normally, Rock would protest, but there wasn't much point. Anita never would have survived anyway. All the money in the world wouldn't have kept her from getting robbed at knifepoint. She was blind and had no common sense for a city like Roanapur. Even Bangkok wouldn't be terribly friendly if she was carrying six million dollars in heavy duffel bags with no idea of where she was going.

It might have been the better option. Revy just did what Rock knew he could never have brought himself to do.

"Rock! Get your ass over here and help me dump this bitch in the harbor! Then take one of those bags! That's yours! You helped drag the money and drove the getaway car! Take your money!" She demanded. Rock nodded, taking the bag with two million dollars in it and bringing it down to his room.

He then came back up and picked up Anita's feet, taking her body to the side of the ship and dumping it with Revy, who seemed satisfied that Rock was finally realizing the kind of world he was in. It was true that he had shown a dark side of himself in the wake of Roberta's homicidal rage, a willingness to manipulate and control people to get his way. But by and large, that wasn't who rock was.

Still, she was glad that he seemed to be letting go of his slightly uptight nature in terms of committing atrocities in order to get money.

"You're getting better at this villain thing, Rock. I'm impressed. You didn't even complain that I capped that bitch." Revy said with a laugh.

"Well, it was the best thing for her, really. She wouldn't have survived the night in Bangkok." Rock said. "I'm not happy that she's dead. But she really had no place in Roanapur. What are we going to do with her kids?"

"Hadn't thought that far ahead. Dump 'em overboard with the body of their mother?" Revy asked, showing her typical callous sense of humor.

"No. They didn't do anything to deserve that. I'm sure that we could give them to an orphanage in Bangkok, or even in Roanapur." Rock said.

"They'd probably grow up to be villains like us if we gave them to someone in Roanapur. They'd grow up to be criminals, robbing people in the name of the orphanage owners, or mercenaries, assassins and thieves. Either way, they wouldn't get a normal life."

"I got a contact in Bangkok…" Dutch said, taking out his phone. "Asshole owes me a favor. Let's hope he hasn't skipped town yet." He said. "Yeah, Konrad… It's Dutch. I'm calling in that favor you owe me. Yeah, we're pulling into Bangkok right now. Meet me at the pier in fifteen minutes. Great." Dutch said, saying goodbye and hanging up. The Lagoon ship pulled into shore and the crew waited for the man to come.

"Hey! Konrad!"

"Dutch! It's been too long!" Konrad said in a heavy Polish accent. Maybe he had been a member of Hotel Moscow at one point. "What you want from me, old friend?" He asked.

"I need you to take these babies somewhere. Their mother was killed. It was unfortunate, but necessary."

"I see… Where I should take them?" He asked.

"Germany, France, England, doesn't really matter. They just don't belong here. Give whoever takes them this…" Dutch said, taking ten stacks of hundred dollar bills out of Revy's bag. Revy protested loudly, but Dutch gave the money to Konrad, sealing it in a bag and putting it in the babies' carriers.

"This big job. Cover all that I owe you and will owe you in future."

"Well, we'll see. It is a big job. We'll call any current debts covered, and say we owe you a favor in the future." Dutch said with a grin.

"You have mind like fox and tongue like snake. You drive hard bargain. I take, though." Konrad said, taking the babies and walking away. It was true. The children didn't belong in Roanapur. He knew some people that would take the babies and turn them into top rate assassins or mercenaries.

He was a member of an organization that paid off orphanages for their silence and took young children and raised them in the life of a soldier. If they knew nothing else, they would never want anything else. This project had been going on for a long time, and recently, they had brought in pregnant women who didn't want their children into the equation. They paid the women for their children, and genetically modified them in the womb to develop superior abilities in the children.

This part of the project had only been going on for fifteen years, but the children were already displaying impressive abilities, the ability to keep going for days without sleep or food, enhanced strength and endurance, enhanced senses and reflexes. Their abilities, the trainers could tell, would not be far above peak-human level, but enough that they could easily win a fight against a peak-human level person.

If they continued to succeed as well as they had bee, they were already making contracts with China and other powerful nations to sell them some of their supersoldiers. Some of the children who had been with the Genesis Project from the beginning were displaying the ability to lift as much as 1,000 pounds. Their bones were dense enough that they didn't break their limbs, and they could punch through medium brick walls. One with peak-human condition could punch through a thin brick wall.

These supersoldiers were displaying an ability that was even a bit frightening to their trainers. They were capable of mastering dozens of styles of martial arts in relatively short periods of time, moving at upwards of 50 mph, hearing things so quiet that no human should be capable of hearing them. Their abilities were becoming stronger by the day. And they were even beginning to work on further enhancement of children who were born before going into the project.

These babies would be perfect candidates. They were healthy and after some medical tests, they would likely be cleared for the enhancements. Already, five children survived the enhancements and were beginning to show their new abilities. People sometimes called it magic. But it was far from magical. It was the triumph of science over human limitation. Konrad smirked, rocking the children gently as he disappeared into the distance.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"Hey, 'Cousin Fucker!'" Revy said with a loud laugh. Rock scowled, but didn't say anything.

"Yes, Revy?" He asked, trying to keep his dignity. He wasn't ashamed that he had taken Anita's money after she had been shot. But he was a little ashamed that he wasn't ashamed of his actions, passive though they were. He could see his conscience being dragged down into the darkness from which nothing could return. He knew that he had crossed a threshold. He wasn't coming back. He couldn't come back.

His soul was tainted, and he didn't even want to go back anymore. His old life was gone. Okajima Rokuro was dead. The company he worked for had said it themselves. Rokuro was dead, and all that was left was Rock. But, he was now two million dollars richer. The bag was hard to drag around. Two million dollars wasn't light fare. But to Revy, it seemed like she was ecstatic right now. She was smiling and laughing to herself, had been all evening.

"You goin' on another date with Leatherface tonight?" She asked, referencing the fact that he had changed clothes. He was still wearing a shirt and tie, but it was a different shirt and tie than he usually wore. Revy wondered how many shirts and ties Rock owned. Probably one for every day of the week.

"Yes. And I would appreciate it if you wouldn't call her Leatherface. As it happens, she's more of a fan of Michael Meyers than Leatherface."

"Ahaha! Is that so? Didn't Michael Meyers want to fuck his sister?" Revy asked.

"No. Michael Meyers wanted to kill his sister. Though I suppose, if you want to look at it like that, killing is the ultimate form of fucking someone." Rock said with a grim smile at his morbid joke. Revy smiled, seeming to realize that Rock had actually told a pretty funny joke.

"It was necessary for the completion of the Curse of Thorn. Honestly, they shouldn't have bothered to explain the reason behind Meyers' homicidal nature. It cheapened the franchise. It makes it less frightening. Meyers was more terrifying when nobody knew why he was doing what he did. But I have to get going. We're celebrating my birthday, so I have a little bit of leeway, but I don't think she'd appreciate me being late. It is my party, after all."

"It's your birthday?" Revy asked, eyes widening. She never knew when Rock's birthday was. He had never told any of them. They sort of exchanged presents on Christmas… Well, Rock got Revy something, and Revy threw up in Rock's face because she was so drunk. Rock nodded.

"Why didn't you fucking say so? We need to go out drinking! Fuck your girlfriend!" Revy shouted. Rock said nothing to this, thinking privately "That's the plan." Rock checked his watch, cursed, and started running. He was going to be late. He may have been a much faster runner now, having been training for three months, but he still was nowhere near Revy's level.

Ten hurried minutes later, he arrived at Shenhua, Lotton, and Frederica's apartment, composing himself and catching his breath before knocking on the door.

"Oh, you very much late, yes you are! Sawyer been ready for fifteen minute!"

"Sorry… I… Well, excuses are like assholes, anyway."

"Huh? What you mean? I no hear that one."

"Excuses are like assholes. Everybody has one, and they all stink." Rock said, laughing weakly. Shenhua didn't say anything for a moment, but then started laughing.

"You funnier than I give you credit! Sawyer! Your date is here, yes he is!" Shenhua shouted. Sawyer walked out in a black dress, blushing slightly.

She wasn't used to wearing dress clothes, but she wanted to look nice for Rock's birthday.

"Wow… Frederica… You look great…" Rock gasped. Frederica turned a deeper shade of pink, muttering a thank you. She never liked the way she looked in a dress.

She was too muscular for a sleeveless dress, or even a short sleeved dress.

"You come in, yes you do! We get you birthday gifts!" Shenhua.

"What? You didn't have to do that!" Rock said, startled that they had all thought of something for him.

"Miss Sawyer likes you, and she's our family. So you're our family as well." Lotton said politely as Rock sat down at Frederica's insistence, and they brought a cake out and some presents as well.

"You open Sawyer's first, yes you do!" Shenhua insisted, pushing Frederica's present at Rock, who took it and opened the poorly wrapped present carefully, folding up the paper as well.

"Wow! A pair of kerambits!" Rock said cheerfully, taking them in his hands, flicking his wrists to test them.

"They're surgical steel so they're incredibly sharp. Do not cut yourself with them." Frederica said.

"Thank you. I'll be careful with them." Rock said, putting them carefully aside and taking the next box. This one was wrapped meticulously, and was labelled "From Shenhua".

Rock smiled, opening the box, finding a set of shuriken and a gut knife with a weight at the end of a long chain for mid-range attacks. Rock smiled. There was also a belt inside that could hold the knife and a few shuriken on its length. It was an impressive gift.

"They good for range and melee combat. Cut or gut, no matter with gutblade. Throw shuriken, you need better aim, probably." Shenhua said with a smile.

"This is really nice of you, Shenhua… Thank you so much." Rock said, taking the third package and opening it. Lotton was as clumsy with wrapping as he was with weapons. Rock opened the package, and found a pair of .45 handguns inside with loaded clips and holsterd that could attach to the belt.

Now this was something he could use right away. Even if he didn't hit dead on, he could scare enemies away. And that would be useful, since he wasn't confident in his aim in high stress situations.

"It's not much. Not quite as specialized as Miss Shenhua's or Miss Sawyer's gifts, but I can't afford more with Miss Revy's tutoring fees."

"Ahaha! I'll see if I can encourage her to accept less now. She won't accept if she can't see something in the future. How about 5% of your profits until you've paid her off?" Rock asked.

"That would be great. Thank you, Mr. Okajima."

"Oh, please… Rock. Rokuro Okajima died about two years ago when he first came to Roanapur. I'm all that's left of him." Rock said, putting the gun in its holster on the belt, and attached the knife and the shuriken to the belt as well, admiring the way it looked in the mirror.

"Frederica and I have to get going. We have a dinner appointment at about the only fancy restaurant in town. You ready, Frederica?" Rock asked. Frederica nodded, blushing slightly and going out the door with Rock.

"You come back later, we eat cake together! No matter how late it is! We not care!" Shenhua shouted out the window as Rock and Frederica made it onto the street.

As they were walking to the restaurant, a young man in a tee shirt with a knife came out from an alley, hitting Rock over the head with a metal bar.

"Hey, Gook! Gimme all your money! Now!" He shouted. Rock actually laughed at this. He had been hit in the head many times by people much stronger than this hoodlum.

"Even while he was on the ground, he surreptitiously reached for a shuriken and threw it as hard as he could, hitting the man dead in the eye. Rock took a second to be impressed with himself at how much his aim had improved. Before he even got up, he got his gun and pointed it at the man, slowly standing up.

"If you'll be so kind as to listen for a moment, I am _not_ Korean, I am Japanese, and you're lucky that it was me who attacked you and not her.

"If she had been the one to attack you, you would be missing an arm right now, and she would likely be using it to beat you to death. I'm sure even a reprobate such as yourself could appreciate the irony of that." Rock said coolly, pointing the gun at the man's knee and shooting. The fact that they were practically at point-blank range made it easy to hit such a small target.

"Now, get out of my sight… And give me back my shuriken. They were a birthday present." Rock said with a cruel smile, ripping the small projectile out of the man's eye, paying no mind to the yelp of pain that the man let out, and wiping the blood on the man's shirt, putting his arm around Frederica's waist and walking away.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Frederica. I don't like to show that side of myself. I'm afraid I'm still not quite used to having that side of myself exist." Rock muttered, his head hung in distress. Frederica said that the reason she chose him was because he seemed like the most normal person in Roanapur. That was becoming less and less true. He was becoming just as dark and deranged as the rest of this shit-stained city's inhabitants.

The only difference between him and them was that unlike most of them, he could manipulate all of them at the same time while most of them could only ever be pawns. Yes, it was not much of an exaggeration to say that he was one of the most capable manipulators in the city. Yolanda had said it herself when she first met him. With some practice, he could become very adept.

Well, he got the practice, and when push came to shove, he manipulated not only Lagoon Company, or the Lovelace Family, but all of Roanapur, including Roberta, Lagoon Company, the three ruling mafias and to a lesser extent, the United States. He had such power during that debacle, and he wished he could say that he was, but he wasn't ashamed of the monster he became in order to preserve the lifestyle he had become accustomed to.

Nothing had been out of bounds for him. He manipulated all of them like a puppet master putting on a play… God, how cliché was that analogy? Well, still. He had just shown his darker nature, and in front of Frederica, whom he honestly liked. He wasn't sure if he could say he loved her yet. That hadn't come up. He hadn't said it and she hadn't asked. But he was more than just passingly fond of her. What would she say now that she had seen this part of him?

"I understand. You were defending yourself and me. I appreciate a man who can stand up for those he cares about. Your ability to fight seems to be improving dramatically. Your shuriken hit him right in the eye. If nothing else, your aim is improved. I will tell Revy if you like that your ability to perform under pressure is also admirable." Sawyer said, clapping a hand over her mouth, realizing that she was fawning slightly as they reached the restaurant.

"You have blood on your shirt, Rock." She said, pointing to a spot on his breast pocket. Rock shrugged and kept walking in with her. Bloodstains were probably akin to a badge of honor in Roanapur.

"Hello, Mr. Okajima… Come with me, your table is ready for you, sir…" The Maître D' said politely. It was odd to hear anyone talk like that in Roanapur of all places, but it was refreshing in its own way, for Rock, who had grown used to more low-brow manners of speech.

"Your lady friend is lovely. I don't think I've ever seen her before. Is she new to the city?"

"No, she's…" He looked over and saw Frederica shaking her head.

"She's been here a while. She just doesn't usually wear clothes like this."

"Of course not. Enjoy your meals." The Maître D' said, walking away. A few minutes later, the waiter came and they ordered their drinks.

Frederica continued her silence. Rock thought it was strange that she wasn't saying anything. She brought her Ultravoice. She had taken it off, though, probably stored it in her purse. Rock never knew she even had a purse. He figured he would go to hell for thinking this, though he was going to hell anyway, so who cared, but she didn't strike him as the type to own a purse. He assumed she kept her money in her pocket and everyone was just too scared to try to rob her.

She was infamous for tearing people apart with a chainsaw, after all.

"Are you alright, Frederica?" Rock asked. Frederica blushed slightly, turning away and nodding.

"Are you sure? You haven't said a word since we got into the restaurant, and you've even taken off your Ult…mmf!" Frederica blushed, putting her hand over Rock's mouth.

"Maybe you'll tell me later?" Rock asked. Frederica nodded quickly, and the two went back to their menus. Frederica perused the menu, and finally put it down. Rock did the same, and after a few minutes, the waiter came to the table, and took their orders. Frederica asked him in sign language if he spoke ASL. The waiter nodded, and she ordered a steak, medium-rare, with mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli and asparagus. Rock laughed to himself about her appetite.

He ordered the Shepherd's Pie. The waiter nodded, and headed off, thinking how beautiful the woman was, and how lucky Rock was to have her. For a while, they talked in ASL, Rock showing once again how skilled he was. Despite the fact that he was hardly considered talented back in Japan, every day he showed how talented he was in the City of Night.

After a while, their dinners came, and they continued to talk, or sign, while they ate. Rock asked where Frederica learned Sign Language. She said that after her throat was cut, she had to learn to communicate. At first, she simply used a crude pantomime that allowed her to tell people what she wanted, assuming they could interpret what she was signing. Then, when she went to England, she learned Sign Language. It was shortly after that when she moved to Roanapur that she got an actual Ultravoice.

She still used ASL on occasion when she forgot her Ultravoice, but needed to communicate. She had a translator called for her if her client couldn't understand ASL. She could also write out her message if she couldn't reach an interpreter. Rock watched Frederica eat. It was impressive, he thought, that she could eat so much and never gain a pound. Rock finished off his Shepherd's pie, having enjoyed the strong taste of the lamb in his meal.

He finished his meal first, sitting back and waiting for Frederica to finish, who seemed to be in no hurry, taking her time to finish her steak and then bit into her mashed potatoes. She looked very methodical, finishing one food first and then moving onto the next, then the next. It was understandable. For someone in her line of work, she needed to not only be clean, especially for a meat packing industry, but also for her job as a Cleaner for the Chinese Mafia.

Finally, she finished, and didn't order desert, since they were going to go back to Shenhua's and Lotton's home and have cake there. When the waiter came and gave them their bill, Rock started to take out a card, but Sawyer stopped him saying that she was paying since it was his birthday. They argued for a minute in sign language, but eventually, Sawyer won, and she paid in cash and they headed out.

As they were heading home, they encountered nobody who would mean them harm, and made it to the apartment unmolested. As they walked in, Shenhua and Lotton came out with the cake.

"How you date go?" Shenhua asked.

"It went well. Rock had a chance to use your gift, Shenhua. Some moron attacked us, and hit Rock on the head with a metal bar. Rock threw one of your shuriken and hit him right in the eye. He then took out your gun and threatened him with it."

"You still have bloody shuriken?" Shenhua asked. Rock shook his head.

"No. I wiped the blood off on the man's shirt. I couldn't risk the shuriken rusting, so I figured he owed me at least that for inconveniencing me." Rock said with a grim smile. Shenhua's face went stiff for a moment, then she started laughing hysterically.

"You funny man, Rock! I never knew you have such sense of humor!" She cried happily. Rock nodded.

"Well… I have my moments. Could you tell me how to properly clean off the shuriken?" Rock asked. Shenhua nodded.

"There many ways. You do soap and warm water first, I suggest, then dry completely then oil, yes." She said. Rock nodded, heading into the kitchen and immediately cleaning the shuriken off, drying it and taking the oil out of his pocket and applying it before putting the shuriken away again.

"You very thorough, yes." Shenhua said cheerfully, taking out a lighter and lighting the candles. The three sang Happy Birthday to Rock, and had Rock blow out the candles. Rock then cut the cake, and served everyone. The four ate cake happily for a while. Finally, Rock and Frederica stood up and headed out. It didn't seem like he was going to sleep with her tonight. That was fine. He was a little anxious himself.

When they got back to his apartment, Rock kissed Frederica.

"Happy birthday, Rock." Frederica said. Rock smiled.

"Thank you. I'm glad I got to spend it with you." Rock said, smiling at her and saying that he'd call her as soon as he could. Was this what they called the Honeymoon part of their relationship? They hadn't had any serious disagreements yet, and he was always so happy to spend time with her.

He had neglected his work a bit, but Dutch seemed to understand, even if Revy seemed annoyed most of the time. He knew that Revy was just being jealous. He figured she would get over it eventually. He headed back into the hotel, and announced that he was home. Revy was sitting on the couch, looking like she was halfway through her third bottle of Tequila. She burped loudly, looking belligerently at Rock.

It was rare to see Revy getting truly wasted. But this looked like one of those occasions.

"Hey, cocksucker… Enjoy your birfday shex…?" Revy sneered. Rock scowled, but didn't say anything.

"Bet I'd makeya feel better'n than chainsaw bitch! At least I can scream when I get off…" She snarled, her speech horribly slurred. Rock sighed, rolling his eyes. She probably wasn't going to remember any of this in the morning. It was best not to encourage her.

"Hey! I'm talkin'tya, shithead!" Revy shouted, staggering over to Rock, kissing him forcefully, shoving him up against the wall and beginning to tear his shirt off. Rock sighed, and felt around his waist. He was sure he had something that would work. Some poppers that he bought a while back, some of his egg bombs, those wouldn't do. They'd hurt Revy. He took the gun out and made sure the safety was on, smacking her across the head with the butt of the pistol, knocking Revy over.

"Get out of my face, Revy. Go to sleep. You'll feel worse tomorrow, but you won't be drunk at least." Rock said irritably, taking off his shirt and putting on a tee shirt to go to bed in. It was getting late.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Revy screamed, waking up enraged. As the sunlight hit her eyes, she squinted, groaning in agony.

"Shit! What the fuck did I drink last night!" She roared. Rock sighed and handed her some medicine to take care of her hangover. She snatched it out of his hand and drank it in one gulp, grimacing at the taste.

"I'm not sure what you drank…" Rock said quietly. "But it must have been powerful to put you under like it did. You weren't making much sense when I came home."

"So, _birthday boy_ … Did you get laid like you were hoping?" She asked mockingly. Rock didn't say anything. It wasn't worth it to start another fight with her and risk getting his leg broken again.

"Hey, Rock!" Benny said cheerfully, walking into the room. "Here ya go, Revy, some earplugs so that you can drown out some of the noise." He said, throwing her a pair of polyurethane earplugs, which she immediately stuffed into her ears, and went back to sleep.

"So, how did your birthday dinner go? Did you get all the presents you wanted?"

"They weren't the presents I would have asked for back in Japan. But they were just what I needed." Rock said, taking out the pair of kerambits, the handgun, the gutblade and shuriken. Benny whistled appreciatively at the gifts.

"Those were from Sawyer, Lotton and Shenhua, I take it?" He asked. Rock nodded.

"Sawyer and I were actually attacked for our money last night, so I was able to test out the shuriken. I told the moron that he should count himself lucky that it wasn't Sawyer defending us. She would have ripped his insides apart with her chainsaw."

"Oh, boy. And I assume that you at least let him off with his life." Benny laughed.

"Well… Minus an eye. I threw one of my shuriken at him and hit him in the eye. Still, I'd rather be minus an eye than minus my life." Rock said honestly. Benny nodded as Dutch came in.

"Well, Rock… Now we need to give you our gifts… We don't celebrate Christmas, except to go out drinking. But birthdays are a special day of the year." Dutch said cheerfully, handing Rock a box with pink and purple wrapping paper on it. The whole effect was rather garish.

"Oh, thank you, Dutch…" Rock said, opening the package carefully, making sure not to rip it and finding a pair of trench knives with spikes on them. Rock smiled, and put them aside with his other weapons, folding up the paper up and setting it aside to be reused. Benny handed Rock his gift next. Rock couldn't help but think that maybe people in Roanapur were nicer than others gave them credit for.

"Certainly, he had celebrated Dutch's and Benny's birthdays, and gotten them gifts. Fancy liquor for Dutch's birthdays and software or something like that for Benny's. Somehow, they never celebrated Revy's birthday. Rock didn't doubt that nobody even knew when her birthday was, likely because she never told anyone. She probably wouldn't want her birthday celebrated, as it would be embarrassing for her.

Benny handed Rock his gift next, and like the last one, Rock carefully opened it, setting the paper aside, and finding a rather fancy laptop. It was extremely compact and light. Rock smiled.  
"How did you get the money for this?"

"Oh!" Benny said, laughing. "Well, I sell programs that I create myself. From spyware to antispyware to computer games, I sell just about anything related to computers. Though I've never actually sold a computer." Benny said, thinking about that last one for a moment.

"But you've never gotten each other anything so expensive…" Rock said, a little perplexed as to why they were spending so much money on him. The liquor must have cost over 100 dollars, assuming Rock was right about the value, and the computer could have cost over 1,000.

"Well… We're making up for lost birthdays. This is your third birthday here." Dutch said. Rock nodded.

"Well, I won't say no to any of this." He replied, plugging in the laptop and starting it up. Something was odd about it, though. There was no brand name on the back, and computers always had their brand on the back. It was an aluminum casing, and lighter than any Rock had heard of. He knew a fair deal about computers, given that he worked for such a large company for so many years. Computers weren't his specialty, but he had to know a bit about them.

And so, he kept up on his knowledge of electronics even after he went to Roanapur.

"Benny… You made this yourself, didn't you? It doesn't have a brand name on the back, it's lighter than any computer I've heard of, and it's using an operating system that, as far as I know, doesn't exist."

"Well… Part of it I made myself. I work with Jane. She's a hacker by trade, but between the two of us, we can make a pretty good computer.

"She's able to get the parts we need from all over the world for wholesale prices, often lower because they're black market, and the two of us program them. We've actually made millions of dollars selling them on the black market. They're faster than almost any computer out at the moment, so they can program viruses and spyware incredibly well, and they're not registered in any system, so there's really no way they can be traced, or have malicious software traced back to them." Benny said.

"And, I know you're not a computer nerd like I am, but I thought you'd appreciate it. Especially since there's almost no chance that they'll contract malicious software on them. No hacker makes malicious programs that correspond to these computers. However, if you don't like it, feel free to sell it." Benny said, seeming to actually mean that. Rock nodded.

"No, I do appreciate it. I can start training at home in the martial arts that I've also been taking classes for. Maybe you could help me break into private information on websites that you need to pay to be on?" Rock asked. Benny laughed.

"I thought you'd never ask!" He said, helping Rock set up the computer, and heading onto the internet, and into the Dark Web, where he began typing furiously, before hitting print, and watching as dozens, hundreds of pages of information began printing out. Rock looked over the information, finding that it was about dozens of styles of martial arts, including several that he was learning, and even more that he had never heard of.

Rock smiled, and started reading. It was still pretty early. He didn't have to go running until early afternoon, and Revy wouldn't be up for at least four hours when her hangover began to subside. He started on the information about Silat, learning as much as he could about wielding Kerambits, finding that they were more often used for assassination than for head on fighting.

"Hey, Rock!" Revy said, thrusting a wrapped package at him. Rock reacted pretty quickly, grabbing the box, and unwrapping it, finding a gift card for a tattoo parlor in Roanapur. It was for 200 dollars. Much more generous than he had been expecting from Revy. She seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

"Hey, Revy… I got some fancy liquor for my birthday…" Rock said, taking out the bottle of amber liquid, and pouring two shot glasses, handing one to Revy and sitting down.

"Thanks…" Revy said. She was used to drinking heavy stuff, but never anything as high quality as this. It was pretty nice bourbon. Rock took a deep breath. Now seemed like the time to ask her about lowering her rate for Lotton.

"Listen, Revy… Lotton is having trouble paying your… Admittedly high rates for his gunmanship lessons. He says that he appreciates you spending your time on him. But… In your own self-interest, if you charge a lower rate now, he'll be able to afford them for longer, and you can take 5% of his profits once he succeeds at becoming a mercenary until he pays you off.

"That way, you'll make more money in the long run, and considering the admittedly large sum that you just made off of Anita, I think you can afford to allow him to pay a little less for the time being."

"I won't accept less than 10% per job, as long as he still pays me 100 dollars a month for now." Revy said, pouring another glass and downing it quickly. Rock knew that she wouldn't negotiate further. She was already being fairly reasonable… Well, reasonable for Revy. Rock nodded.

"I'm sure he can work with that. He'll be over this afternoon anyway for another lesson." Rock said. He was sure that Lotton would be grateful for the subsidized payment plan. He would still have to pay 100 dollars a month, but considering Revy's skill, that was actually fairly low. He went to the phone, and dialed up Frederica.

"Hello, Sawyer the Cleaner of UG Pork. How may I help you?" Frederica asked. She was being very businesslike. Was she expecting a job?

"Hey, Frederica…" Rock said, feeling nervous for some reason.

"Oh, Rock… Did you enjoy our birthday date last night?"

"Yes. Very much. Oh, I have good news for Lotton. Could you put him on the line for a moment?" Rock asked. Sawyer agreed and handed the phone to Lotton. Rock could hear their conversation in the background.

"What does Rock want?"

"I don't know. Just take the phone. I'm sure it's nothing bad." Frederica replied. Lotton took the phone.

For a moment, there was static, then a soft, gentle sounding voice came over the line.

"Hello, Rock… Is something the matter?" Lotton asked.

"No. Revy has agreed to subsidize the rate for your lessons. She still expects 100 dollars a month as long as you're still taking lessons. But once you stop, she'll expect 10% of the payment for each of your jobs until you pay her off."

"That sounds reasonable. Did you have to get her drunk to have her agree to that?" Lotton asked. Rock laughed. That sounded like Revy. She was a mean drunk, but she was less rational, so she might agree to something stupid when she was smashed.

"No… I shared the bourbon I got from Dutch for my birthday with her, and put her in a better mood. She wasn't drunk when she agreed, though." Rock replied. Lotton nodded.

"Thank you, Rock. This is greatly appreciated. Revy was going to bankrupt me with her rates. 400 dollars a month was going to put me in crushing debt before I knew it. I know, for a successful company like yours, it doesn't seem like much. But for me… Well, I don't get very many job offers, and…" Lotton whispered the next part. "I'm pretty sure Miss Shenhua and Miss Sawyer were tired of lending me money." Rock laughed.

"It's no problem." Rock replied.

"I'll let you get back to Miss Sawyer. Thank you." Lotton said, handing the phone to Frederica. Frederica picked up the phone.

"Hello, Rock. Shenhua and I also appreciate your diplomatic abilities with Revy. We've been taking turns helping Lotton pay for his lessons.

"We expect that eventually he'll be able to pay us back."

"That's surprisingly generous of you. I never knew the denizens of Roanapur could be so kind."

"Well, I don't mind, but Shenhua is calling it a loan. She intends to be paid back with interest."

"Ahaha… I could see that…" Frederica said, her laugh sounding like gravel, especially over the phone, with the static. Rock didn't mind, though.

"Sounds a bit like Revy, too." Rock replied. "She's the type to charge 500% interest and still not be satisfied when she was fully paid off." Frederica laughed at Rock's statement. It was a bit of an exaggeration, they both knew. But it came from the truth.

They talked for a while. Finally, Revy shouted from the other room.

"Hey, asshole! Get ready to train! Rotten is here!"

"It's Lotton… Miss Revy…" Lotton said quietly. Had he really been talking to Frederica for that long? No. That was impossible. He checked his watch. He had been on the phone for over an hour.

"Listen, I have to go… Revy's calling for me to start gunmanship training. I love you, Frederica…" Rock said. Frederica gasped. He had never said that to her before. She had never even heard her mother tell her that. Of course, it was well known to her that her stepmother had hated her. Still, it was gratifying to hear it.

"I love you, too… Rock…" Frederica said in her growling, mechanical tone.

Rock hung up, sighing happily. Revy seemed even more irritable than usual when he came into the other room, hooking his 45s onto his belt and standing at attention, waiting for Revy to order him.

"Okay, Rock… You've got your own guns now. Let's see 'em…" Revy said. Rock handed her his guns. She inspected them, looking them over for a few minutes before handing them back to him.

"A little small for my taste, but they'll get the job done, I guess. You won't be blowing anyone's head off with those, though, so aim for the chest." Revy said, setting up smaller targets than she had done last time and telling them to hit as many bullseyes as they could. Rock had to get bullseyes on at least two out of three of his shots, or she'd drop him as a student. Lotton had a less stringent amount. For him, it was one out of three.

Rock counted himself lucky that he had used some of his money that he got from Anita to buy more bullets for his gun. At the time, he wasn't skilled enough to use the guns in combat. But he still needed to train. So he aimed carefully and fired, hitting right on the center. Lotton had already put off three shots, and only hit one of them on the center. The target practice continued like this for an hour, by which time Rock was almost out of bullets.

Still, he had made four out of five shots that day. He was pretty satisfied with his progress, and although Revy wouldn't say it, she was angry at him, she seemed to think so as well.

"Alright, maggots! We're going running now. Hurry up and get changed. We've been doing this every day for almost a month, now! So we're going Freerunning. Rotten, you'd better keep up! How're your martial arts classes going?"

"Very well, Miss Revy… My Freerunning teacher says I'm getting better. My skill in acrobatics is improving as is my skill in jumping." Lotton said in his usual quiet tone.

"Well then you have no excuse!" Revy snapped. "Get your fucking sneakers on and shorts!" She yelled.

Rock nodded, getting dressed for running, making sure to put his guns and other weapons around his waist before heading into the other room. Revy laughed, seeing him like that.

"You don't need those weapons! I'm all the protection you need!" She snapped. Rock nodded, dropping the belt and heading out with her. She had planned a different course that day, longer than past courses.

As they started picking up speed, Revy made commands like "show me some of your acrobatic skills… Rotten…" Lotton nodded, leaping up and catching a fire escape, swinging and landing on one of the steps, leaping to the next ladder and catching it, falling back to the ground, bending his knees and continuing to run. Rock leapt onto a small stand, jumping off of it and landing on the ground.

He wasn't confident enough to do flips yet. Revy seemed relatively satisfied, though.

"You're getting more flexible… Training to do some of those Kama Sutra positions you Japs are so famous for?"

"The Kama Sutra isn't… Japanese… It's Indian… And it's none of your business…" Rock snapped, gasping for breath as he bent his knees and leapt over a chair that he had nearly run into.

"Hmm… Not bad. A clean jump. Still, you have a lot of work to do. Keep running!" Revy demanded. Rock kept going. Finally, after two straight hours of running various courses throughout the city and being ordered to leap over and through almost every conceivable obstacle, Revy let them stop and rest.

"You didn't suck as much as usual today… You can go home, Rotten… No wait… Lotton…" Revy said, her expression softening slightly.

"Alright, both of you!" Revy shouted, calling Lotton back. Lotton hurried over, knowing that she wouldn't be patient if he took his time.

"Tomorrow, we're having practical training. Bring an airsoft gun, preferably with metal pellets. I want you to feel the bullets. No way to lie, then. Each of you will count the number of times you were hit and tell the opponents their score. Got it?" Revy ordered. The two men nodded.

"Good. Come back tomorrow. Same time. Now get out of my sight." Revy said. Rock sighed, stretching before heading back to Lagoon Company's apartment.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Rock took deep breaths, putting his hands behind his head, trying to catch his breath. He was on another run. He had been feeling more energetic lately. It was possibly a result of not being able to get enough exercise on his broken leg. Still, once he caught his breath, he went running again. Once a day in the morning, he went on a jog, then in the evening, he went on a more intense run with Revy. He had been doing so much exercise lately he was sure that he would get stronger in no time.

He was lifting weights most days as well. He was a member of a martial arts school that taught multiple styles. In reality, it was just a person who had agreed to teach Rock martial arts, a Parkour teacher… Again, just someone who was good at Freerunning who had ended up in the ass end of the world. Frankly, it was amazing what he could afford given that he was careful with his money. Revy blew her money almost immediately, and had none for anything… Uncanny.

But in reality, Rock saw that she was starting to save money away on occasion. She had put $2,000,000 of the money that they had robbed from the bank away to save for a later date. Having just robbed a bank, she didn't trust the bank. But she was talking to people who could help her invest it at Rock's suggestion. He had told her that if she invested two million dollars well, and used investors who knew secrets within the stock industry, she could make a lot of money.

Rock was actually pretty proud of Revy. She was showing marked progress. She was able to recognize that saving money, while diminishing what she was able to buy in the short term, helped her in the long term. She deserved a lot of credit for being able to rise above her immediate desires like she was. He was just waiting to see how long it lasted. If it remained a lasting change, then it was definitely something that he should congratulate her for.

Was that arrogant of him? Surely no more arrogant than Revy was on an almost daily basis. But Rock liked to think that he held himself to a higher standard. Still very arrogant, but that was life for the most part in Roanapur. And in his own mind, his confidence was becoming more and more warranted. He wasn't a great fighter like Revy or even like Dutch, but he had managed to scare away a mugger, and his manipulation abilities were second to none… In Roanapur at least.

"At least that had been the case during Roberta's second rampage in Roanapur. He had promised himself that he wouldn't do it again if he could avoid it. Even Revy had admitted that his manipulative side had scared her. Honestly, it had scared him a bit too. It wasn't that his manipulative actions scared him. It was the fact that he wasn't scared of his manipulative acts that scared him. He was becoming evil, just like the rest of Roanapur.

He was becoming as corrupt as the rest of the city. His evil just wasn't worn on his sleeve like the rest of the city, so a person could miss it if they weren't paying attention. Rock sighed and started heading back to the hotel that they were staying in and hoped that Revy hadn't looted his money. It sounded like the kind of thing she would do. Having seen how safe banks were, Rock had put his money in a safe and kept it locked on almost all occasions.

As he was headed home, he decided to walk past UG Pork to see Frederica. He had long since learned the streets of Roanapur and learned which streets not to take for whatever reason. He felt his beltline and saw that his weapons were still there. As he reached the large warehouse, he walked in, hearing the grinding sound of a chainsaw ripping through flesh. Then he heard a loud, ear piercing scream from the victim.

It was odd that he didn't feel sorry for the person anymore. They had clearly done something to upset the balance in Roanapur. As well-kept as the balance was, it was also fragile in its own way. Roberta had proven that, so had Hansel and Gretel. They were people that proved that while the mobs were extraordinarily powerful, their control, based on fear as it was could easily be upset by those who weren't afraid of them and were willing to rise against them.

Suddenly, the door crashed open and a man, bleeding profusely and with muscle, bone and tendons dragging from his body crawled out of the room.  
"God, no! Don't kill me! I'll give you whatever you want! Just don't fucking kill me!" The man cried.

"Save me, goddamnit!" The man demanded, looking at Rock. Frederica looked up as well and Rock was sure he heard her gasp underneath her heavy protective clothing.

Her chainsaw blade suddenly flew out of control and sliced open the man's back. He shrieked in agony as it tore through his flesh and muscle. It was a shallow wound, but it bled a lot and seemed excessively painful, even for a chainsaw wound, perhaps because it was so shallow. As Rock watched, the man seemed to be getting dizzy from blood loss. But he was still hopped up on adrenaline, and crawling away from Frederica, who followed him slowly, putting relatively minor wounds on the man as she followed.

He occasionally screamed, but he wasn't bleeding much anymore. He simply didn't have enough blood left to bleed excessively. His body was desperately trying to preserve itself by cutting down on blood flow. Even though his heart was probably racing, his chest heaving in and out with desperate breaths, he bled very little as Frederica continued to slough chunks of flesh off the man with her chainsaw. Rock had to admit that there was a certain art in her form of torture and murder.

Slowly, the man's strength waned. The adrenaline was wearing off. He was most of the way to the backdoor, the door that led to the alley that would have led to the streets where theoretically he could have lost her. Frederica had let him get that far on purpose, Rock realized. It wasn't just murder to her. She wanted him to have hope that he could escape her, and then watch as he lost it, watch as his waning strength finally deserted him and he realized he couldn't escape.

Finally, she bent down next to him, kneeling and taking off her goggles and mask.

"Do you know why you're here?" She asked. The man shook his head, his eyes wide with fear. His body was going into shock, his muscles were beginning to seize, he felt horrible painful cramps running through his body. Unless she somehow decided to let him live, he was dead. She smiled at him. She was beautiful… Terrifying, but beautiful, like an angel of death.

"You crossed the wrong people in this town. The Chinese Triad are not the people with whom to fuck. Your death will serve as a warning to others…"

"Can I… Have a last… Request?"

"Absolutely!" Frederica said with a cheerful smile. Rock raised an eyebrow. This was unlike her. Even when she was with him she never looked so cheerful.

"Could you kill me quickly? That guy has a gun. Just… You know, shoot me?"

"Mmmmm… That is a fair request… And I suppose you have suffered enough…" Frederica said in her typical scratchy hypervoice. She thought for a moment as the man gasped for breath and tried desperately to continue to crawl. Clearly he had a collapsed lung, either from a beating or from the chainsaw ripping the lung. Either way, he was dead. He just didn't know it yet.

"Request… Denied…" She said, smirking evilly at him and taking her chainsaw, revving it up with one quick pull of the cord and making controlled swings into his back, ripping out flesh and muscle first, going lower, reveling in his screams of agony as the chains gnawed on bone, then ripped into his spinal cord.

He made one final scream and then as the chainsaw made a final cut through the spinal cord, he went still, finally having died, but whether from the blood loss or suffocation or from the trauma of having his spinal cord ripped apart like that, Rock didn't know. Either way, it didn't really matter. He was dead and that was all there was to it. Finally, Frederica pulled off her smock and mask and looked at Rock with a heavy blush.

"When exactly did you come in?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"Well… A few seconds before your latest job burst through the door and started crawling away from you. I heard him cursing and begging you not to kill him and then he came through the door and you followed… There was… Something kind of… Artistic about the way you killed him."

"Artistic? I suppose so. You… Really think it was artistic?"

"Grotesque, horrifying, upsetting, but yes, artistic. The way you were able to keep him alive so long while you tortured him… Oh, God, listen to me! I'm turning into a monster!" Rock muttered, finally bursting into laughter when he realized how funny he found all of this. Frederica was laughing as well. After a moment, Rock closed the distance between them and kissed her.

It wasn't like any of their past kisses. This kiss was passionate, wild… Frederica seemed to pick up on the passion as well, a blush shading her fair skin as her hands reached around Rock's back, pulling him closer to her, not wanting there to be even a centimeter separating them. Rock separated them, pulling Frederica down on the floor, removing the long sleeved grey and purple shirt she always wore. Frederica blushed, covering herself.

"You look beautiful, Frederica…" Rock said. He felt a bit like Revy right now. The smell of blood and death was kind of a turn on. It was weird. He knew that he had been corrupted by the City of the Dead. But he never thought he was this far gone until now. Kissing Frederica, wiping some of the blood off her face, he smiled gently at her, unbuttoning his own shirt and throwing it aside. He didn't even notice that it landed in a puddle of blood.

Frederica's hands slowly, shakily ran themselves over Rock's chest. Rock was hardly what Frederica would consider muscular. But she noticed that he was becoming stronger by the day still. Rock sighed, reaching around and unhooking Frederica's bra, throwing it to the ground.

"Hey… I…"

"You didn't think we could do this without taking our clothes off, did you?" Rock asked with a good natured laugh. Frederica turned a deeper shade of red, not answering. In some ways, she wished they could… She never considered herself overly beautiful. She had far too much muscle to be considered attractive to most men who seemed stuck in a time when women who were weak, pale and in need of rescue were more attractive…

"Is that still the way it is where you come from?"

"Japan? Is what still the way it is?" Rock asked. Frederica blushed, not wanting to say it. But now she had started, she couldn't just stop.

"Do men still prefer weak women in Japan?"

"Some do… I guess…" Rock said. "Personally, I find your strength beautiful in itself." He finished, kissing her tenderly, the lust and passion dulled down, but the love still there. Frederica nodded, not quite meeting Rock's gaze. Slowly, his hands made their way down to her skirt, pulling it down along with her underwear, leaving her completely naked. He kissed her stomach gently, drawing a gasp from between Frederica's lips as her hands reached for Rock's head but drew back just as quickly.

His lips went lower to her pussy, kissing her clit. Suddenly, a jolt of pleasure assaulted Frederica. She had never felt it this strong. She played around by herself or even with Shenhua when they were both in the mood. But it had never felt quite like this. This felt special. She could try to convince herself that it was just sex. But it wasn't.

"Stop… I'm completely naked and you still have your pants on… Something doesn't seem quite right about this…" Frederica said with a smirk. It was Rock's turn to blush now. Frederica actually laughed, a gravelly, almost grating sound through her Ultravoice. It was cute to see Rock, who tried to stay so composed blushing. He nodded and pulled his pants down, revealing that he was already rock hard… Frederica rolled her eyes at the pun that had just crossed her mind.

After a moment, Rock went back to what he was doing, flicking her clit with his tongue, drawing a raspy cry from Frederica. He wasn't done, though, he continued to attack her. Suddenly, her hands grasped his head, pulling it in until she orgasmed harder than ever before, causing her to groan loudly with the spasms of pleasure coursing through her. After a moment, Rock pulled away, smiling at her.

Frederica leaned in, kissing Rock tenderly, her hand going down to his penis, stroking it slowly, occasionally twisting and finally, even after resisting for a while, Rock came, groaning his release. The two lovers kissed again, Frederica wiping Rock's release off on the smock, resolving that she would wash it later. She needed to clean it anyway. It had been a while. Frederica smirked, though, seeing that she was doing something right.

Rock kissed Frederica again, holding her gently as he pulled a condom out of his wallet. He had bought a box of them recently when he realized that he might need them in the near future. Inching toward her, he prodded a few times, listening with satisfaction to her breath hitching in her chest. Finally, he pushed into her, moving slowly, deliberately, watching between nerves and pleasure as he saw her expression as he buried himself inside her.

He saw a mix of pain and pleasure on her features, tears filling her blue eyes. Slowly, Rock leaned down, kissing Frederica and began moving slowly inside her. At first, Frederica moaned lightly as he buried himself in her. She was bleeding. She really had been a virgin up to that point. For a moment, he stopped, staying still inside her, holding her close to him to comfort her. After a moment, he began moving again, drawing gasps of pleasure from Frederica.

For a moment, she was still caught between pleasure and pain. But slowly, her expression changed to one of pure ecstasy. For long moments, the two moved together, Frederica crying out Rock's name wordlessly, not wanting to ruin the moment with her electrolarynx. It had always been part of her gimmick so to speak. Her voice scared people, especially when it was followed up by a chainsaw wielding madwoman. So she breathed sighs and cries of pure pleasure, not trusting her voice.

Finally, though, as their moment reached its peak, she screamed Rock's name, groaning her release, her nails digging into Rock's back, unable to contain her strength, her walls tightening. Clearly, Rock had been holding it in until that point because he yelled Frederica's name as well, gasping for breath as his back relaxed after the powerful feeling subsided and the two fell to the floor, holding each other, kissing. For a short while, they fell asleep in each other's arms.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Rock awoke to the brightness of the sun setting. Checking the watch that had been thrown aside, he saw that it was almost 9 at night. The sun was setting the clouds in the sky alight with its radiance. Rock shook Frederica lightly. The young woman jolted awake, grabbing one of Rock's knives and holding it to his neck, glaring at him.

"Frederica! It's me! It's Rock!" Rock protested. Frederica blushed, strapping her Electrolarynx back on.

"Sorry… I am not used to being so vulnerable…" Frederica said, looking away from Rock, embarrassed. Rock smiled, grabbing Frederica's clothes and handing them to her. She nodded and started getting dressed, stretching and starting to close up the factory. She probably had a stack of requests for jobs on the desk in her office.

Some would undoubtedly be from the mob. But others would just be from people who needed their buildings cleaned up after a particularly bloody murder. Rock gasped as he remembered how this all had started. He had legitimately been turned on by the morbid beauty of her tearing a man apart with her chainsaw. He had truly crossed the line, now. There was a bit of a difference between him being willing to manipulate people and him finding it arousing to watch someone be cut up with a chainsaw.

Still, he felt closer to Frederica than ever. Standing up and tying the condom at the end, he asked where he could throw it out. Frederica smiled wryly.

"Well… You could either use the garbage can or the alley… Either place is a fairly typical choice to dispose of condoms." Rock laughed at this.

"Where is the garbage can?"

"Over there…" She said, pointing across the room. Rock nodded and tossed it across the room, hitting the garbage can perfectly. Frederica's eyes widened. Rock's aim had become quite precise. Fortunately, he had tied it tightly enough and his semen hadn't spilled as it flew. She honestly would have preferred that, in a relatively hygienic environment, that he just walk it across the room.

But she wasn't going to bring it up now. She was impressed enough by his feat of accuracy that she decided to let it go this time.

"Would you like me to walk you home, Rock?"

"No… That's alright… But I should certainly walk you home." Rock replied, taking Frederica's hand, pulling her in and kissing her on the lips before walking back to hers, Shenhua's and Lotton's apartment.

"Hello again… Good to see all of you… I'd like to thank all of you for your birthday presents again. I've gotten a lot of use out of them already." Rock said politely to Frederica's two roommates.

"Excuse me… I have to get back to Lagoon Company… I've been out much longer than I expected. I love you, Frederica… Good night." Rock said, kissing her gently before walking out, saying a friendly goodbye to the other two as well.

Taking the fastest route home, doing a little more Freerunning, deciding to finish off the day with it, he arrived at the apartment, and went upstairs, where Revy immediately sniffed the air when he walked in.

"You smell like sex! You fucked Frederica, didn't you!" Revy demanded, laughing wildly.

"Well… You of all people would know what sex smells like, wouldn't you? Porn star?" Rock smirked. Revy snarled at him.

"Hey, dumbass! Answer the question!"

"Well, since you asked so nicely… None of your damn business." Rock said, getting some satisfaction out of Revy's anger. The other two didn't seem terribly interested in Revy's jealousy or Rock's evasive answers. It was pretty much just another night for them.

"We have some pizza left if you want some, Rock…" Dutch said, handing Rock a slice of lukewarm pizza. He was hungry though, so he took it and started eating quickly. He was very hungry. He realized he hadn't had lunch that day. He had been training since before noon, and Revy hadn't given him and Lotton a break at lunch. She just sat there and ate in front of them as she demanded that they keep on going with target practice. Finally, she let them go after a five mile run around the city.

Lotton went straight back to the apartment while Rock went back to the hotel for a shower and then hung around for a while before going for a run in the evening… Then he went to Frederica's meat packing warehouse where events unfolded as they did… He was still very hungry, though. After he finished his third slice of pizza, he sat down, burping and excusing himself.

"Ah, that was weak Rock! Ya gotta do it like this!" Revy exclaimed with a laugh, letting out a long, loud, wet belch, drawing laughs from Benny and Dutch. Suddenly though, Revy stopped laughing and leapt up, grabbing a gun, pointing it at a young man who had just walked through the door.

"Um… Hello? Is this Lagoon Company? I was told that you were the best… I was hoping I could look for a job with you guys…"

"Hell no! We've already got one loser! Why the fuck would we need a second one?" Revy demanded angrily, shooting at the door jamb. The young man ducked into a rolling position and tumbled into the room, standing up and striking a point on Revy's wrist that caused her hand to open, dropping the gun. Before Revy could pull her other gun around, the young man hand his gun in hand and pointed at Revy's head.

"I'm sorry, miss… But I'm not interested in dying… They told me that you're the boss, sir?" The young man said, turning to Dutch and smiling politely at him. And he was very young. He looked like he might be 21 or 22 at the oldest, and had messy dark brown hair with blue eyes and a liberal amount of stubble, like he hadn't shaved in a while. He had thick glasses and

"Yup… That's me… Put your gun away, Revy… He's not here to hurt us. What's your name, kid?"

"Linus… Linus Welter."

"Well, Linus… What can you do? What skills do you have that we could use?" Dutch insisted. Linus looked at Revy.

"Do you mind? Putting that gun down? It's making me uncomfortable." Linus asked, winking at Revy, who glared at him disgustedly, but put the gun down.

"Alright… Well… I've got some skill with guns… I'm afraid I'm not quite as good at dual wielding as Miss Revy… But I can shoot pretty long range… Doctor says I have 100/10 vision. I can hack… Well, a little bit… Most of what I do is phonying up carrying licenses and gun ownership documents.

"But once, I had a lot of help, we broke into a few banks known for serving rich clients and skimmed 1% off each of the top of the ten richest clients' accounts in thirty banks. 1% of ten million dollars is only 100,000. The odds of them even noticing are slim. We made off with upwards of ten million dollars and when the bank found out, the FDIC ensured the majority of the money, so people weren't even that miffed." Linus said with a mischievous grin.

"I can shoot, but I also am alright at hand-to-hand combat… Mostly street fighting, but I took to martial arts pretty well… Nothing too formal… Just kinda picking up a bit of Taekwondo, bit of Hapkido, a little Capoeira and Silat… Basically, whatever martial arts books were on sale or in the library at the time, I picked up…" He said easily with a smile, brushing his hair back. It looked like he was used to having much shorter hair. He scratched his cheek.

"Mm… Do any of you know where I can pick up some shaving supplies and some scissors?" He asked. "This stubble is driving me nuts, and my hair keeps falling in my face. I've been on one ship or other for almost a month, travelling from LA around the damn world to get to Roanapur…"

"But why would you come here? You seem like you could ply your wares just about anywhere in the world…" Rock said, seeming at a loss to explain this man's decision.

I ain't rich… But some thugs broke down my door and tried to hold me up. Naturally, I fought them… What would any of you do, right? But I punched the youngest hard enough in the head to kill him. It turned out he was some rich politician's brat… I was arrested for murder… But I escaped jail by conning the guard and hopped a ship that was headed I didn't know and I didn't care where.

"I ended up in South Africa… Then I hopped another ship and worked as security until we reached Malaysia, where I hit up some pirates who said that they were headed to a place called Roanapur to finish a deal with someone named Balalaika who ran Hotel Moscow. I accompanied the pirates there, and Balalaika turned out to know where I might be able to catch a job.

"The law doesn't exist down here except in the three mobs, she said, and I had no need to worry about the police from LA. To them, Roanapur didn't even exist. So, then I came here. I spoke to Balalaika and she said that for a mere 25% of my bank account, she could have it transferred over here, no questions asked. I haggled it down to 20%… I'm simply not comfortable haggling more than that with a woman who has a smile that makes it look like she could blow my head off from five hundred yards.

"So my money should be here in 3-5 business days and she gave me your address. It's a pleasure to meet all of you… My name is Linus Welter… I hope that you can find a place in your fine, upstanding organization for me…" He said with a laugh. Dutch laughed as well. He looked at the young man.

"Well… Normally we don't do this… But you seem like you have a wide array of abilities… But are you talented enough in any one of them to be of use to us?

"Rock is a hell of a negotiator. He managed to con all three mafias, the United States army, an enraged and half-mad guerilla warfare expert and our own company through a miniature war that plagued Roanapur for a while. I'm the boss… I was in the Vietnam War in the Navy… Benny can hack government level computers… And well… Revy hardly needs an introduction… She studied under Boss Chang and can dual wield guns and is our main combatant. What can you do that they can't?

"That's why I'm gonna have you take a few tests…" He said, looking out the window. "Tomorrow. It's a little late tonight… Join us for some drinks?" Dutch asked. Linus nodded happily.

"I'd be delighted." Linus exclaimed. He hadn't really had the pleasure of a good drink in almost three weeks. He followed them out of the hotel to Yellowflag Bar

"Yo, Dutch!" Bao called. "I see you picked up another stray!" Dutch laughed, nodding.

"Well… Not just yet… He seems like he's talented… But we still have to see if he's good for a spot on the crew." Dutch replied, sitting down.

"So, what can I get you, New Guy?"

"Mm… Amaretto on the rocks, please?" Linus asked with a pleasant smile.

"Sure thing… And the rest of you?"

"Vodka!" Revy said loudly. Bao nodded and handed her a glass of vodka, which she downed almost immediately while Linus seemed to take his time.

"Rum, I guess…" Rock said. Bao raised an eyebrow. Rock seemed uncommonly happy, even for him.

"We're outta rum…" Bao said. Rock shrugged his shoulders.

"Why is the rum gone!" He demanded. Linus laughed at this joke, though nobody else seemed to get it.

"Guess I'll have whiskey then." Rock said. Bao nodded and poured a glass of it, handing it to Rock. Rock took a sip of the whiskey. Revy sneered at him, though.

"You still drink like such a pussy!"

"No, I drink like someone with a modicum of civility."

"Well… I'm not too good to drink my shit in one swig… How's about a drinking contest, Revy?" Linus suggested good naturedly. Revy laughed wildly.

"If you think you can handle it!" She said, demanding a bottle of Whiskey. The two of them poured a healthy dose of the amber liquid and downed it, pouring another before it could even settle.

This went on for another two hours and three bottles. By the time they were done, Rock was sure that Revy was more alcohol than blood. And he was pretty sure that Linus would be similarly inebriated. Strangely, though Linus seemed fine. He smiled cheerfully. His eyes were slightly unfocused, but when he was given 'the test', he threw the glass at the target and it smashed right on the bullseye. Bao, not trusting one shot, gave him another and he hit dead on a second time.

He then took out his gun and fired six bullets straight into the bullseye. Even Dutch, who had seen incredible marksmanship in his time, both in the military and in Roanapur was amazed at this man who seemed to be a flawless shot. He had to also be a lifelong drinker to be able to down a bottle and a half of whiskey and not even be tipsy.

He looked over at Revy, smiling. He remembered a time when he was like that. Infuriated at the world and trying to drink his problems away. Unfortunately, it was very hard for him to get drunk. He once drank an entire bottle of Everclear in a half hour and it only got him to a .04. He drank another bottle of Everclear and he was barely drunk at .07 because some of the previous bottle had already metabolized.

He looked at Dutch and Rock, both of whom seemed fairly lucid. He picked Revy up with one arm and slung her over his shoulder.

"Wow… You're pretty strong, Linus… You look so…"

"I know… I look like a lightweight. Have you ever heard of the Genesis Project? I was a product of it about 30 years ago. I was born in a tube and trained to be a superhuman soldier without a hint of a conscience or even human emotions. So any emotions that I seem to show are all mimicry of other humans. Over the years, once I escaped, I learned to mimic realistic human emotion."

"Yeah… That guy Konrad was a Finder for the organization. He probably is turning Leopold and Phoebe into supersoldiers. So what is your real name, Linus?"

"Genesis 4M-98."

"What does all that mean?" Dutch asked. Linus smirked.

"Genesis Project, Fourth Series, Male, then my serial number. There was a series of Female test subjects. There were 100 males and 100 females. I was the 98th subject birthed. When we came of age, they encouraged us to mate with the females so that they could have Second Generation subjects. They wanted to test the results of natural birth from two First Generation enhanced humans… A number of my brothers and sisters complied and they're raising the Second Generation in the same way they raised us.

"I refused and rebelled against the organization. I managed to escape in the middle of the night. I tried to bring some of my brothers and sisters with me, but we got separated. There are seven or eight of us out there somewhere. I try to keep up with the news in case they mention anyone matching their descriptions. One of my sisters I know became an assassin. She's currently #4 on the FBI's top ten most wanted list.

"Stories of her in the news mention how she can run as fast as a car and has punched officers so hard that she caved in their ribcages, that she can bounce bullets off of steel poles and hit people… She's a legend in the world of assassins. I looked her up on the Dark Web. She's been known to charge a million dollars or more for a job."

"Damn… What kinds of experiments did they do on you?" Rock asked. Linus sighed.

"For the most part, we'll never know the extent of their experimentation on us. They did most of them before we were born. The only experiments they did after we were born were for stabilization of our modifications. The stabilization maximized our abilities and made it so that we wouldn't break down physically for any reason."

"I see…So do you know if they've given up on finding you?" Dutch asked. Linus shrugged.

"Well… They might have… They probably think we've all been eliminated. People like me have trouble blending in. I can lift a man my size above my head with one arm. I can run up to 45 miles an hour. I can dodge bullets and balance perfectly on a surface the width of a garrote wire. It took me ten years to learn to fully blend in, and… Well… I ended up showing myself in a big way.

"Murdering a politician's son… There's no way to keep that quiet. That's why I came here. Monsters like me walk the streets openly. I saw a girl with a bloody chainsaw walking back in dragging a torn up body. I heard the revving of the saw and heard the man's screams and nobody did anything. I'm betting that this is the kind of place where that kinda thing happens all the time, yeah?" Linus asked. Dutch and Rock looked at each other.

"Yeah… That kind of thing is a pretty everyday occurrence here. If you can manage to keep from pissing the mobs off, you'll fit right in." Dutch said with a laugh.

"Let's get going… We've got a job tomorrow. You can prove yourself in actual combat… We'll stop by a pharmacy and get some medicine for Revy… She'll be hung over tomorrow." Rock said. Linus nodded.

"So… Tell me a bit about Revy… She seems like a fun person."

"Right up until you piss her off. When she's angry, she'll shoot first and ask questions never." Rock muttered. Linus shrugged.

"Well… Nobody's perfect… Has she always been so fierce?"

"I think so… She grew up in the slums in New York City. She won't tell any of us much about her life, but I think she spent a lot of time in prison." Rock said casually. "But I'll give you the same advice Revy gave me. Prying into other people's lives here is a sure way to getting yourself killed. You won't endear yourself to Revy by asking her about herself or her past. She came here to escape that part of her life."

"Well… Can't blame a guy for trying." Linus said with a sheepish laugh.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

"Hey, Rock… D'ya mind if I join you for your run?" Linus asked. "I hear you're learning how to Freerun… That was one of the first things they taught us back at Genesis…" Linus said cheerfully. Rock nodded. "Sure… You can come along… I bet you need to learn the city, anyway."

"Well… Actually, I walked around the entire city yesterday. I learned the whole thing by heart, yeah." Linus replied. Rock nodded.

"Great… Join me then. Revy won't be up for a few hours at least… Well, as long as Dutch doesn't wake her. She'll be hung over as fuck and you won't want to disturb her." The former Japanese businessman said. Linus nodded, following as Rock leapt out the window and rolled as he hit the ground, leaping up onto a ledge and over to the other side.

"Mm… Pretty good form, he's got, yeah." Linus said, leaping out the window and rolling straight into a standing position, flipping over the ledge and landing perfectly on the other side, following Rock's lead, making sure not to go too fast. At full speed, he could go at 45 miles an hour… He was sure that he could train to go faster, but for now 45 miles an hour was faster than any human could go.

He followed along with Rock at a comfortable jog until suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks, his breath catching in his throat. He looked across the market, eyes wide. Three people he never thought he'd see again. He grabbed Rock, stopping him and striding across the marketplace.

"4M-25, 4F-18 and 4F-29? I never thought I'd see you three again!" Linus said excitedly, sitting down with three of his former fellow subjects. All three looked at him impassively.

"Hello, Genesis 4M-98. My name is Garda Klein, now." 4F-29 said, seeming emotionless.

"Please call me Alric Luitgard." 4M-25 said.

"And my name is Astrid Erikssen. Pleasure to see you again." 4F-18 said, seeming quite unconvincing.

"Of course… Garda… Alric… Astrid… Wait… Astrid? Like the How to Train your Dragon movies?"

"I watched the movies and liked the name… So I took the name for myself. After all, a name means nothing to me, but in our society, few can get by without a name. Humans take their names so seriously…" Astrid said. Garda and Alric nodded.

"So… May I ask what brings you three all the way to the anus of the world?"

"As mercenaries, we go where we're paid to go." Alric said. "We've also been paid for our discretion. We could tell you, but not this man."

"He is quite handsome, though…" Garda added, smiling at Rock, though her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. It was an ice cold smile that seemed entirely fake.

"You've done quite well in learning to mimic human expression, 4M-98…"

"Please… Linus Welter… If you would…"  
"Of course… Linus. However did you manage to mimic human emotion so accurately? We still have trouble with such aspects." Astrid asked. Linus smiled.

"Well… Living in a place like Los Angeles, being able to liberate books or borrow them from the library, I learned through trial and error to mimic human emotion at first. Eventually, it became natural for me. I worked in the Los Angeles underground, earning money as a criminal. I needed some level of charisma. I managed to learn to read people and speak to them on their level. It was quite interesting to learn. You can trust this man, though… I've seen him. He's a good man. He won't betray your confidence."

"Very well… If Linus assures us you can be trusted?" Astrid asked, looking at Linus as though she didn't even quite trust him.

"I promise you." Linus said with a smile. Alric nodded.

"We are bodyguards on a simple human trafficking operation. That is all you need to know. It is beneath our talent, but we are being paid well for it."

"If I may ask you a personal question?" Garda asked. Linus nodded.

"Would you like to join us? I am certain that our employer would be happy to pay you what he is paying us… In addition, your marksmanship was always the best of the four of us."

"Maybe… But I'm not nearly as good at hand-to-hand combat as Garda is."

"Nor am I as good at hacking as Alric is." Garda said.

"And Astrid was always the most acrobatic. We each have a skill at which we excel at more than any other. That does not mean that your marksmanship would not be a welcome addition to our team. Frankly, the other bodyguards disappoint us in terms of their gun skills. They cannot even hit a bird from 1,000 feet.

"You were once able to shoot an enemy's bullet out of the air and then shoot the enemy in the span of half a second. You are unrivaled in marksmanship." Alric said.

"Thank you… But I have already sworn my loyalty to another team. I'm certain that you could find an equally mercenary and unscrupulous job elsewhere in Roanapur. There are many lowlifes and criminals.

In fact, I am certain that Hotel Moscow or the Chinese Triad would gladly hire talented individuals such as yourselves… You could also form your own mercenary company based in Roanapur. Again, there would be no shortage of work." Linus said, seeming like he hoped that they would take him up on his offer. The three looked at each other, seeming to communicate silently. For two minutes, then three… Then five, they simply stared at each other. It was almost a bit creepy.

They didn't even seem to blink in that time. They simply stared, occasionally looking back and forth amongst each other, their expressions occasionally changing minimally. Finally, Alric turned and looked at Linus, nodding.

"We will do so. The mobs running this town could not afford to have us work full-time for them. But we will set up shop in Roanapur and sell to those who can afford us on a job by job basis.

"Are you kidding?" Rock asked. "Miss Balalaika and Mr. Chang have more money than anyone else in Roanapur, and by working for them, you're completely above what limited law the police impose here. Money isn't the only benefit you get from working for one of the three mobs that run Roanapur… It's just one benefit." He said. The three looked at each other again, seeming to shut the rest of the world out, communicating silently. Finally, they turned and Alric spoke again.

"We will propose hiring us to one of the mobs. Which one do you suggest?"

"Well… Black Lagoon works most closely with Hotel Moscow. However, they have also been known to do jobs for the Chinese Triad." Linus said.

"Then we will seek employment with one of them first. We must complete our current job first, though. We cannot simply abandon our employer with substandard trash such as they are currently employing."

"Actually… Um… One of my teammates, Revy is exceptionally talented with a gun, and I don't think even she could hit a bird moving full speed in the head from 1,000 feet." Rock said, thinking that would be all but impossible for anyone but someone with superhuman ability.

"That is what those pieces of shit said to us when we mentioned their lack of ability. They also considered themselves 'exceptionally talented'." Astrid said flatly.

"I look forward to hopefully working with you again." Linus said. Alric nodded.

"Yes… It will be good to work with someone who is up to our standard in talent." Garda added.

"We shall see you again surely. But we are expected by our employer in…" Astrid said, checking her pocket watch. "Ten minutes. Therefore we must bid you farewell for now." She said. The three stood simultaneously and strode off at matching paces.

"Alright… Let's finish off our run…" Rock said, going into a run, cartwheeling over the bench nearest them and hurrying back into a run. Linus laughed. Rock's enthusiasm was infectious. He followed, taking a long leap over the bench, clearing it by bending his knees into his chest and landing on the other side, immediately breaking back into a run, getting up to Rock's speed in moments, keeping up while only seeming to go at a jog. Rock took a deep breath.

"How are you able to keep up so… Easily?" He asked. Linus laughed.

"Well… I'm older than I look. How old do I look?"

"Maybe about Revy's age? 25? 26?" Rock suggested between gasps. Linus laughed.

"I'm flattered. I'm actually around 50 years old. My expedited healing allows me to age about half as fast as an ordinary human.

"I've been working on a method to stunt that healing. Jump up ahead… But so far, nothing has worked. If I take enough damage, my healing slows for a little while, but within a few days, it's back up to its normal speed." Linus said, seeming to lament this fact.

"Well… I'd gladly take that healing off of you. So does that mean that your average lifespan would be about 160?" Rock asked. Linus shrugged.

"Maybe… I suspect that our lifespan would correspond to the peak of human lifespans, so I'll probably live closer to 260 years. Boy, what a drag, yeah?" Linus asked. Rock shrugged.

"I wouldn't know. I can't imagine living that long. I think I'd go insane if I had to watch the world change like that around me." He said, twisting and leaping over a cart, bending his knees as he landed on the edge and jumping again, running as he landed on the tarp and jumping off.

"Mm… You're pretty good at Freerunning, Rock… How long've you been practicing?"

"About a year maybe? First I just read books, but now I'm practicing with Revy and Lotton."

"Oh yeah, your girlfriend's roommate, right? I dunno… I'd be a little jealous if my girlfriend was shacking up with a guy." Linus said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Nah… Lotton is too clumsy and kind of awkward to really pose a threat to my relationship… Besides, he's a genuinely nice person. You don't see too many of them in Roanapur, but he's one." Rock said. Linus nodded. They continued running for about thirty more minutes and then, with Rock exhausted, headed back to the hotel, where Rock headed to the shower and washed off before collapsing on his bed.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

"Hey! HEY! Rock! Wake the fuck up!" Revy demanded, going to kick Rock to wake him up. Linus put a hand on her shoulder though, stopping her.

"Hey, Rev… I'll get him up. Just… Calm down, yeah?" He suggested. Revy bared her teeth at him, turning and storming off.

"Hey, Rock… If you don't want to be kicked next time, you might want to stop pretending to be asleep when she tries to wake you up, yeah?" Rock sighed as the new guy said this.

"Yeah… I was trying not to flinch… I knew she'd kick me even harder if she knew I was faking… But you really have a way with Revy.

"Back when I was the new guy, she tried to kill me more than once. The scary thing was that I knew she wouldn't be punished for it. There's no real consistent law enforcement here."

"You… You really think so?" Linus asked, his eyes lighting up.

"You have feelings for Revy… Don't you?"

"She acts so strong… But there's a sort of vulnerable despair underneath her strength… She's a woman I'd love to get to know better… Get to understand. She's beautiful… Well, if she could stop smoking… Her cigarette smoke is clouding my aura sense, yeah."

"More powerful men than you have tried to change Revy… And failed."

"I doubt that. There are only a handful of men in the entire world more powerful than me at best, yeah. And they've disappeared into the underground of whatever country they happen to be in now. You met three of them just yesterday. Alric is one of the best hackers in the world, infamous in the international underground for being able to hack unbreakable systems and then emasculate them by crashing their computers with viruses that don't correspond to any known malware.

"Garda… She's got immense skill at fighting, but her physical strength is second to her agility. She could outmaneuver… Well, I doubt you've ever heard of Rosarita Cisneros."

"Are you joking? She almost destroyed Roanapur twice and declared war on the United States. She's a maid now for the Lovelace Family. If your Garda can defeat her, that's quite a feat." Rock said.

"And Astrid… Well, she's never been beaten at Freerunning. Her flexibility and agility allow her to slip through spaces that would trap a less able person of her size. Even amongst the 100 men and 100 women amongst our fellow soldiers, she was the best, yeah."

"You really miss your former comrades, don't you?" Rock asked. Linus sighed, nodding.

"Yes… We were closer than any brother or sister in the world because only we truly understood each other. Our masters didn't understand us. They only saw the numbers. They saw what we represented to them, the next step of humanity and a way to make a lot of money, but they didn't know each of us. Garda had a strange quirk of cracking her knuckles… Alric… Well, he couldn't lie without blinking a lot. We had to help him overcome that particular problem, yeah.

"Astrid… Well… She enjoyed pressing flowers. But the scientists never knew any of that. They couldn't detect when Alric was lying. He blinked a lot, but showed no other physiological symptoms of his lies. The scientists never saw any of us as individuals…"

"And you… Well, you have the habit of adding 'yeah' to the end of most of your statements." Rock said. Linus laughed.

"No, no… I added that later… My quirk was that I wrote poetry. I was pretty good, too. I brought some of my poetry with me. Much of it was about a fellow experiment. Actually, you met her. Garda… Her red hair and mismatched green eyes are so exotic. It was about as close to romantic attraction as I could feel at the time. I understood the concept of love, but only really on an academic level, so my attraction to her, and her to me was superficial at best." Linus said, blushing slightly. Rock's eyes went wide.

"The woman with one dark green eye and one light green eye? She was the woman you had feelings for?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. It wasn't necessarily what either of us would have called true love. But our feelings went deeper than that of simple comrades in arms. If we were actually commanded to mate with a fellow experiment, we would likely have chosen each other.

"As it stood, we went our separate ways after we escaped, agreeing that large congregations of superhumans travelling together would draw far too much attention. I told her I wanted to continue travelling with her, that two of us, even if we occasionally slipped up and revealed our abilities, would be able to blend in in a large city. But she disagreed and we went our separate ways. I… Must confess… I was sorely tempted to join the three of them in their future plans.

"I would still hope to be friends with you and Lagoon Company. But I would not, strictly speaking be working for you. I think Revy feels threatened by my presence. She saw what I could do last night and I fear she hates me because she thinks I'm here to take her place. Garda… It's a beautiful name, don't you think? Old High German, Teutonic by background. It means Guardian or Guarded One." Linus said, going on a non-sequitur.

"She always was the cautious one amongst the thirty or so members of Genesis who escaped. If we had joined forces, we could easily have created a fighting force that would have been unmatched by any military in the world. We could have charged any price we desired for our services. We would have been unstoppable. But we went our separate ways because of Garda's warning. I believe now that she was right. I almost got caught once right in San Diego by a man who recognized me.

"He had once been a social worker who observed our mental and emotional states while the doctors assessed our physical wellbeing. He was fired and his memory effectively wiped after we escaped. Actually, it was more like his memories were swept under a carpet and hidden from him. A run-in with me on the street jogged his memory and brought it back… I'm afraid I had to kill him. I invited him over for dinner and killed him quickly and silently. Very little pain. It wasn't his fault, after all." Linus said.

"How did you kill him silently? It's not that easy, even with the skills of a marksman." Rock said. Linus laughed, seeming amused by Rock's assumption.

"You think marksmanship and diplomacy are my only skills? I'm also skilled in hand-to-hand combat, Master Level in twenty martial arts. I learned a completely silent way to murder an enemy. You stab them through the ribcage and collapse their lungs.

"If their lungs are collapsed, they can't breathe, so they can't scream. Then a simple knife to the heart is enough to kill them. Three seconds at most and they're dead. Use a special chemical reagent to completely erase the evidence in the apartment and dissolve the body in Hydrofluoric Acid." Linus said, showing very little emotion. Rock shivered at how methodical Linus could be about killing a man and reminded himself not to get on Linus's bad side.

"You don't need to worry, Rock… I have no intention of hurting any of you in Lagoon Company. You're about as close as I've had to friends in a long while. Revy… Good morning. You're looking surprisingly alert today, especially after all the alcohol you drank last night." Linus whispered. Revy flipped him off, though. Linus hurried to his bag and took out a bottle of pills.

"Here… Take two of these. They'll cure your hangover in approximately twenty minutes. Back in the Genesis Facility, they tested the effects of alcohol on us. They forced us to drink until we were completely shitfaced, then they tested how long it took for us to become hung over, then how long it took for our hangovers to subside. They developed this medicine based on that research. It was still experimental at the time, but it worked well for the test subjects." Linus said.

Revy snatched the pills out of Linus' hand and swallowed them.

"Shut the fuck up, cocksucker!" Revy snarled. Linus laughed.

"#lol. You know, you're not gonna make any friends with that kind of anger." Linus said with a cheerful grin. That was obviously the wrong thing to say, though because Revy shrieked, pulling out her gun and aiming it at Linus, right between his eyes.

"You've got a big mouth, asshole!" She growled. Linus chuckled.

"Yeah… I hear that a lot."

"Then you probably hear this a lot, too!" Revy said, cocking her gun.

"More than I'd like, honestly. But I can handle myself. Revy, do you mind if I ask you a question?" Linus asked. Revy's angry face went slack. Then she seemed to get her composure back.

"So long as you consider a gunshot an acceptable answer." She said with a cruel laugh. Linus shrugged.

"I can't control how you answer. I met some old friends of mine at a restaurant when Rock and I were out Freerunning. They invited me to join them. They're planning to set up shop in Roanapur as well. Your boy Rock is pretty charismatic… My friends aren't easy to influence, but he convinced them to join one of the local mobs and not expect exorbitant sums for it."

"Well… That's his job. He's the mouthpiece of our company. He's not strong and he can't outrun me or Dutch, but he can talk his way out of most problems. Way I hear it, he talked his way into Leatherface's pants." Revy laughed meanly. Linus looked at her, puzzled.

"Leatherface?" He asked.

"There's some bitch in this town named Frederica Sawyer. She's a fucking cleaner and a bounty hunter, and she uses a fucking chainsaw as big as she is. She and Rock are a fucking item… Well, 'till she realizes that there are better men than him in the fucking gutter."

"I can't quite tell whether you're just jealous of their relationship or if you legitimately hate Rock. He seems like a nice person." Linus said. Revy's face wrinkled disgustedly.

"Jealous! Of that idiot and his half-robot girlfriend? Bullshit!" Revy snarled.

"If you say so… Have you ever considered quitting smoking? You would be far more energetic and have greater lung capacity if you stopped." Linus replied, smiling at her in a strangely calming, charismatic way that offset her anger at being told what she should do. Still, if anybody could get angry at someone trying to help them, it was Revy.

"Fuck you, asshole! If you _ever_ try to tell me what to do again, I'll slit your fucking throat and watch the blood leak out!" She shrieked madly. This only caused Linus to laugh.

"Ahaha! Funny, pretty and talented. The day you could beat me in a fight is the day I jump off the Empire State." He said with a good natured laugh at his own expense.

"Oh, yeah! Fine! Prove it to me! Right now!" Revy demanded, grabbing Linus by the collar of his plain white, long sleeved tee shirt that seemed very well worn.

"I make it a point not to hit women." Linus said, taking the high ground, but grabbing Revy's wrist and compressing hard enough to force her to release her grip.

As he compressed, Revy heard loud pops and cracks in her wrist and let go, struggling to pull her hand away until Linus let go and Revy flew back, landing hard on the floor. This only angered her further and she leapt up and ran at Linus, grabbing her gun. However, the minute she pulled it out of her holster, he grabbed her wrist and twisted, forcing her to drop it.

"You can't beat me, Revy… You are talented, strong and beautiful. But your abilities are only those of a human." Linus said, a severe look on his face. The look in his eye though unsettled Revy. There was something about him, she thought that seemed like he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to kill someone who attacked him. He had let her off the hook for whatever reason, but she suspected that if she tried to shoot at him again, he would put her down.

But she couldn't let her humiliation at his hands go.

"I _will_ kill you one day! You can't escape death forever!" Revy snarled. Linus looked at her, his anger subsiding and a level of empathy for her situation setting in.

"Revy… I don't want to fight you. I like you. You seem like a fun person. I haven't been bored yet with you.

But if you force me on this… I will destroy you… I can guarantee you that." Linus said, his expression changing to the dead-eyed expression that was so common in Roanapur, the look in one's eyes that indicated that they had completely killed anything even resembling a conscience inside of them. Occasionally, Rock showed that expression, but it was still rare-ish for him. He had to show that side of himself during Roberta's second coming. But he tried to hide it.

He didn't like that aspect of himself, and he didn't want Frederica to think that he had become just like everyone else in that shit covered city. Somehow, Frederica still thought that he had maintained some semblance of his humanity, and he wasn't eager to dissuade her of that impression.

"I… Would love… To see you try…" Revy sneered, her grin widening until she, as Fabiola said, looked like the skull from the Day of the Dead Festival.

"Fine… I'll beat some respect into you. I'm not used to assaulting women, but I doubt a woman of your strength would want to stand on tradition, yeah?" Linus asked, removing his glasses, which were strictly for show and dropping his belt that had his guns on it.

"Shall we simply have a fistfight? Or would you prefer to use some sort of weapons? Dealer's choice, yeah?" Linus asked, smiling politely, but showing the steel behind his humored façade.

"Doesn't make a difference to me! I'll beat the shit outta you regardless!" Revy snarled, putting her guns aside and showing that she had no firearms on her.

"Very good then. I will abandon all my weapons, including blades, shuriken, guns and smoke bombs. It seems only fair that we begin on equal footing… In the way of weapons, anyway."

"A fair fight is a fight you're determined to lose. Bring any weapons you want to against me! I'll crush you all the same, cocksucker!" Revy snapped.

"Are you certain we can't reach some sort of truce, Rebecca?" Linus asked. Revy's eyes widened.

"What did you call me, shitface!"

"Is your name not Rebecca? Sorry… I guess I misunderstood." Linus said.

"Call me that again, and you'll have to try to call me it through broken teeth!"

"Well then… Let's finish this scuffle so I can spend the rest of the day doing something I actually want to do." Linus said, walking down to the street. Revy followed him and squared off against him. Linus put a single hand in front of him and put the other one behind his back.

"So that I don't risk killing you, if you can force me to use my second hand, I'll declare you the winner." Linus said, seeming to show some contempt for the rather vicious woman in front of him.

"That's fine!" Revy shouted, laughing as she launched into battle against Linus, throwing a smoke bomb at the ground in front of him, blinding him and throwing a punch. Linus grabbed her wrist, though, twisting and throwing her into the building, cracking the stone that it was made of with her impact.

As they fought, it was loud enough to draw a crowd, and they all seemed excited to see the two battling. Rock started taking bets even, figuring he could make some money.

"Alright! Who wants to bet on Revy Two-Hands?" Rock shouted. One of the spectators narrowed his eyes.

"Where are her guns?"

"She decided not to use them in this fight. Didn't think she'd need them."

"Why is the man only using one hand?"

"If she can force him to use his right hand as well, she wins. She doesn't have to beat him up. Just force his hand… Quite literally." Rock said.

"I'll put 500 on Two-Hands!" The man said. Rock nodded.

Soon, a number of other people had put money on Revy as well. A few, mainly risk takers bet on Linus, who was a new guy and a wild card. Some had heard wild stories about him, but most believed they were ridiculously exaggerated. Linus' left hand shot out and grabbed Revy's face, jerking downward, throwing her to the ground. Before she hit, though, he kicked her in the stomach, driving the wind from her. She gasped, falling to her knees, gagging and coughing. Linus still had his right hand behind his back.

"Do you give up, Revy? You should see that you can't win." Linus said apathetically. He looked around, seeing that he had even drawn in Garda, Alric and Astrid. He wondered how Ludmilla and Jane were doing. They had always been free spirits, and decided to go off on their own.

"You ain't beat me until I stop moving!" Revy shouted, pulling a gun from her belt and pointing it point-blank at Linus' face.

Linus sighed. He had come to expect this kind of treachery from people. He had hoped that it would be different here, but he hadn't kept his hopes up. As he heard Revy's muscles contract to pull the trigger, he dodged to the left, twisting and grabbing her wrist, compressing so hard that her bone fractured and her shoulder and elbow were both dislocated in the same split second. He then used only his left hand and chopped her Carotid Artery, knocking her unconscious.

"I am sorry, Revy… I didn't want to fight you in the first place." Linus said, seeming legitimately unhappy that he had won. The crowd was stunned into silence. Revy was known as a juggernaut of death. Only a precious few people had ever been able to beat her. Now, this man with no weapons had beaten her into unconsciousness with such ease. Not to mention amongst the crowd, they had lost a total of about 7,000 dollars.

Rock split the money in half and distributed the 3,500 evenly among those who bet on Linus and pocketed the other 3,500. He didn't really need the money. He still had a large portion of the money they stole from the bank. But he could use it to buy a gift for Frederica. They were coming up on their one month anniversary. It seemed only right.

"Hey! Gook! You cheated us, didn't you! You knew that unarmed man would win, didn't you!"

"How could I possibly have known that?" Rock asked smoothly, reaching for his gut knife in the event that he had to fight. He hoped that he wouldn't. He didn't like his chances against an entire mob. Fortunately, Garda, Astrid and Alric stepped in and took out their weapons, keeping the crowd at length.

"If you want to keep all of your digits, we suggest you scatter. We have seen this 'Gook' as you call him fight. He could kill all of you before you blinked." Garda said quietly but with an air of contempt for the crowd. The crowd seemed to pause, and finally, they thinned out and hurried away, though whether because of the weapons pointed at them or because they actually feared Rock, he didn't know.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

"Thank you… Garda, right?"

"That is correct. It is a pleasure to see you again, Rock… Oh, what does 'Gook' mean?"

"It's a racist word for a Korean person. I'm actually Japanese, not Korean… But they probably couldn't tell the difference…" Rock said. Garda nodded.

"Hello, Linus… I wish we could have spoken longer the other day." She said, turning slightly pink and actually smiling at him. It was a thin, bland smile that seemed forced, but it also seemed genuine in some ways. Linus smiled at her as well.

"It's good to see you as well. The outside world is stranger than I expected it to be. We've been gone from the facility for years, but I still am not accustomed to normal humans.

"I fear I used too much power in dealing with Revy. I hope I haven't crippled her." Linus said. Garda sighed, walking over to Revy, twisting her arm and setting her shoulder and elbow and compressing on her wrist, setting the bones in the right place before she injected Revy with a strange green solution.

"Her arm should be as good as new by tomorrow. You always were the most compassionate of the experiments.

"I think that's why I found myself attracted to you… As much as any of us could be, anyway." Garda said. Linus blushed slightly. "You're embarrassing me in front of my friends… But I am flattered." Linus chuckled nervously.

"And for the record, I admired your tenacity. Do you remember the day we were learning a new form in the martial art Genesis had created specifically for superhumans?"

"Yes. I was just 4-F29 back then. We hadn't even given ourselves human names yet. I had dislocated my elbow, wrist and shoulder and gotten a hairline fracture in my tibia, but I refused to stop practicing until I got the form perfect, even with my infirmities. The scientists feared that I would cripple myself. But I injected myself with the healing solution and kept practicing."

"Exactly… I didn't know from love back then, but I was so attracted to you that day… And ever since…" Linus said, his blush deepening. Garda sighed, kissing Linus on the lips. It felt a little lukewarm, like she was going through the motions of emotions she was only just beginning to experience. But Linus's world was still lighting up like the Fourth of July.

"You always were the poetic one, Linus. Sheaves and sheaves of paper covered in tiny, neat handwritten poetry and short stories. Science-Fiction and Horror stories if I remember correctly." She said, laughing, although her laughter still seemed a little empty.

"Your emotions are showing, Garda Klein." Linus said. Garda's eyes widened.

"Sorry… I don't mean to."

"No, no… I like it. It's nice to see you finally embracing your human side. How did you do getting the Russian Mafia to take you in?"

"She gave us a test. She pitted us against three of her best soldiers." Garda said, seeming amused by this.

"Oho… I hope you didn't kill them?"

"No… But I said that I would take all three on alone and emasculated all three of them. Miss Balalaika was duly impressed by my combat skill. I told her that all three of us were approximately at the same level and she hired all three of us. It didn't seem to matter that none of us were Russian…" Garda said. "It would be great if you would join us. "

"I can't. I've sworn my loyalty to Lagoon Company."

"Please, Linus? For me? Remember that time you humiliated that Special Ops sniper? He challenged you to a sharpshooting contest and you hit a bullseye at 100 yards without a scope with a handgun. He tried the same shot and couldn't even hit the target."

"That was the first time I actually laughed in my life."

"I remember… It sounded like a weird cackle. But you got the rest of his allies laughing as well. The Korean Black Ops Team tried to recruit you, but you refused. And I laughed as well… It was… Fun… I'm using that term properly, right?"

"Yes… Why don't you join Lagoon Company with me?" Linus asked.

"Because I think your girlfriend isn't the kind to want to share… She seems the possessive type."

"Well… Miss Revy probably is. But she's not my girlfriend. She's just my coworker, and I don't think I did myself any favors with her by defeating her in single combat. I could have thrown the match, but I guess I was being a bit vain in beating her with one hand tied behind my back."

"That was pretty impressive. Do you want to get Miss Revy into the hotel? We can throw her in her bed, and then I can throw you down on your bed… Yeah?" She asked, smirking, mimicking Linus' own speech quirk. Linus laughed, blushing slightly.

"That would be… Divine… But I'm afraid I have to decline… For now… I wouldn't want to be interrupted, yeah? Especially by Miss Revy… Who would probably unload a few clips into me."

Linus and Garda laughed, but Linus picked Revy up, throwing her over his shoulder, carrying her upstairs and putting her in a bed, and sitting down with Garda.

"So… Where are Alric and Astrid? Did they… Decide not to join you?" Linus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No… We simply stayed behind to assure people that they had not been cheated by your dimwitted Japanese friend.

"There were still many who were uncertain of how you managed to defeat the violent street urchin and we assured them that you simply had been training in martial arts since you were able to walk and thus did not need to cheat to win." Alric said. Astrid looked around.

"Your room is… Likely not up to your standard of living." She said. Linus sighed.

"Well… It's a little bit rustic, but it works. I've slept in worse, yeah." The young mercenary replied.

"Garda… You are welcome to stay with this so-called 'Lagoon Company' if you prefer. You can be with Linus again. I am certain that Miss Balalaika would not begrudge you the most insipid but natural of human emotions." Alric said, seeming to neither begrudge Garda her emotions nor support her. Garda sighed. She didn't want to leave Alric and Astrid, both of whom she had been travelling with for two years. But she wanted to be with Linus again as well.

"Rokuro Okajima… You have a woman, correct?" Garda asked. Rock nodded.

"Please, call me Rock if you would? Rokuro died in the South China Sea years ago. Rock is all that's left." Rock said. Garda nodded.

"Very well. You have a woman, Rock. What would you do?

"You have a chance to remain with the allies that you've travelled with for two years, ever since you met back up with them in Paris. What would you do?"

"I…Listen, Garda… I was a typical Japanese salaryman before I came to Roanapur. On a business trip, I was taken hostage by the Lagoon Company and they planned to blackmail my company. I was told to disappear, that I would be declared dead.

"So I did. I joined Lagoon Company. It wasn't until after I left my old life behind that I realized how much I hated it, and how it was killing me. Here… Well, I'm not sure if I'm free, but I'm closer to freedom than I ever was in Japan. I'm just not sure I'm the right person to ask. I would never want to see my old friends and family again." Rock said. Garda sighed, seeming distressed that he wasn't able to answer her question.

"But… It's really up to what you think is right, Garda… Either way, you'll still have both things. Your friends will still be in Roanapur, doing jobs and Linus will still be here. You're still in the same town." Rock said. Garda nodded. "Yeah, I know… Do you ever feel empty when you're away from your girlfriend?"

"Not really. I see her often enough. We go on a date at least once a week and we both have lives separate from each other. We understand that. Frederica lives with a Taiwanese assassin and… Actually, I'm not quite sure what Lotton is. He's learning to be a gunman… He's gotten a lot better; stronger, more athletic… But he's still a bit clumsy… Maybe you could help him?"

"I doubt it. Guns aren't my strong point. You two should ask Linus about that. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to teach both of you. You'd be in the best possible hands with him." Garda said.

"Lotton will be happy to hear that. Revy is charging a lot of money to teach him and Lotton, being mediocre at best at shooting right now doesn't have the money. He'll probably in debt to Revy for the next twenty years by the time he gets enough skill to stop asking Revy for lessons."

"I see… Well, I doubt Linus would ask for any money, but you should ask him. I can't speak for him." Garda said, gesturing Linus in. He hurried back into the room, having been checking on Revy. The mad gunwoman was beginning to stir. He was sure she would be awake within five minutes.

"I heard… I'm happy to take both you and your friend, Lotton on as students. I take it you'll be wanting martial arts, gunmanship and general Parkour lessons all together, right?"

"That's what Revy has been doing. I don't think she calls it Parkour. It's just an acrobatic fighting/running style that she developed for herself kind of freeform." Rock said. Linus nodded.

"She is a very adept fighter. Even I'm impressed by her skill. I don't know that any normal human I've met could beat her…"

"Rosarita Cisneros beat her. A man named Manslayer Ginji almost beat her."

"Mm… I've heard of Manslayer Ginji. His trademark is being able to cut bullets with his sword."

"It was. Revy killed him." Rock said casually. At that moment, Revy walked out, rubbing her head.

"Goddamnit! What the fuck did you do to me, motherfucker!" Revy screamed, grabbing her gun and shoving it in Linus' face. "My head is fucking killing me!"

"I hit a pressure point on your Carotid Artery. It knocked you out without having to do brain damage to you. You will want to relax for a while… I was careful not to do excessive damage to your body, but you passed out due to the shock of being hit there. Plus, your arm is still healing. I reset your elbow and your shoulder, but your wrist fracture is still healing."

"Fuck you! I'm gonna fucking kill you, asshole!" Revy screamed, unloading a few bullets in Linus' direction. Linus grabbed Rock's gut blade and sliced one in half, and dodged the other two. Revy's eyes widened. This man was incredible. Even Manslayer Ginji or Roberta would have had nothing on Linus. Still, he had beaten her in a fight, and she was still deciding whether to admire his skill or get revenge. She could shoot him in his sleep, but that didn't seem too satisfying.

But seriously, could this guy do everything? She tried shooting him several times and he either dodged or cut the bullet in half. He was more agile than Jumbo, stronger and more talented than Roberta, and more accurate than Chang. He could singlehandedly put all of Roanapur out of business.

"If you could fight with a chainsaw, you could put Leatherface outta business too, damnit!"

"I _can_ fight with a chainsaw. They make for excellent intimidation weapons, but not terribly practical. Alric built a chainsaw that ran about fifteen times more efficiently than your typical chainsaw. It was made out of a metal developed by the Genesis project. Its blade rotates at approximately 500 mph. It can cut through a human like a hot knife through butter and when the blade gets back into the mechanism, it spits out the meat and bone shards so that it doesn't get gunked up." Linus said.

"I learned to fight with that… Actually, I should still have it with me… Alric gave it to me for my birthday one year. Honestly, it was completely pointless. Great gift, but I use guns, not a chainsaw… You should give it to Frederica for her birthday. It's coming up, isn't it?" Linus asked. Rock nodded.

"But how did you know?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Linus laughed.

"I did my research on you guys before I came to join you. It would've been stupid not to, yeah?" He asked. Rock nodded.

"How much would I owe you for the chainsaw?" Rock asked.

"Normally I'd say nothing, but since you're giving it as a gift and not me, let's say 300 dollars."

"Really? That's all? You could probably make thousands off of it on the market." Rock said.

"Take it before I change my mind." Linus said, winking. Rock nodded and took 300 dollars out of his pocket, handing it to Linus, who pocketed it and dug through his boxes, which had just arrived earlier that day.

"Ah! Here it is! It's about five feet long. Here." He said, handing Rock a huge chainsaw that Rock tried to lift, expecting it to be difficult to wield because of its size and weight. Surprisingly, it was very light considering how big it was.

"It weighs much less than an average chainsaw of its size. It was designed for combat wielding, so the metal is lighter than aluminum but stronger than titanium.

"Garda joked and called it up-your-tanium… Ahh… She has a strange sense of humor. Alric simply calls it "Unnamed Metallic Compound 52… I've taken to calling it Qo'ostreodium… I dunno… I wanted to give it a weird name. I'm sure your girl will love it. Her birthday is in three days."

"Either this guy is a better researcher than Benny-boy, or he's a weird ass stalker that you should watch out for. I'm voting for the second one…" Revy whispered to Rock.

"Thank you, Linus… I'm sure Frederica will love this. How many rotations per second does it do?"

"I'll… Write everything down for you to give to her. It's only right that a cleaner such as herself should understand her weapon of choice." Linus said, taking a pen and writing everything down in very neat calligraphic font, finally handing it to Rock and helping him wrap everything.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

"Hey, Frederica… Happy Birthday. I sort of wish you had just told me your birthday was coming up." Rock said as he was invited into Frederica's apartment and he sat down with Frederica, Sawyer, Lotton and Shenhua. Frederica and Lotton had been playing video games, and as usual, Lotton had been losing miserably.

"I have never liked my birthday. I never even told Shenhua, and Lotton about it. I do not know how you found out." Frederica asked. Rock sighed.

"Our newest member… Linus… He did research on all the members of Lagoon Company… And I guess he found out about you… So yeah… Sorry about that. I got you a present. Happy Birthday." Rock said. Frederica blushed and took the gift.

"It is… Very heavy… What is it?" She asked, putting the gift on the table. Rock had to agree. It was heavy, even if it was light for what it was.

"You'll just have to open it." Rock said. Frederica nodded, smiling shyly and pulling the paper off, folding it neatly on the floor. When she got to the gift, she gasped. She picked it up, hefting it and swinging it a few times.

"Is this made of aluminum? It will not be strong enough to cut through people."

"No… It's a unique metal created by something called the Genesis Project. Garda called it Up-Your-Tanium, Alric called it Unnamed Metallic Compound 52. Linus calls it Qo'ostreodium… It's stronger than titanium but lighter than aluminum. Linus wrote down all of its properties." Rock said, handing Frederica a card with neat calligraphy on it.

"Mmm… It spins very fast… It will eject the muscular and bone matter from a port in the back. That will make cleaning it much easier… Thank you, Rock… This must have cost a fortune… I'm not sure I can accept it." She said. Rock shook his head.

"Its previous owner was surprisingly willing to part with it. No, I didn't kill him. Linus sold it to me pretty inexpensively. I hope you get a lot of use out of it." Rock said.

"You give her good gift, yes you do!" Shenhua said excitedly, admiring the chainsaw from the table.

"Yes… My old chainsaw was wearing out. I needed a new one, anyway. The gears were starting to jam from years of having gunk move through them. This just brings about my old one's disposal a few weeks earlier than anticipated." Frederica said. I will invite you to watch my next job with it…" She said, leaning in and smirking.

"Maybe if I do a good enough job, we can have a repeat of last time." She said. Rock blushed, especially at the looks on Shenhua's and Lotton's faces.

"I look forward to it." Rock said. "I have dinner reservations again at one of the only nice restaurants in town. We need to hurry or we'll be late. Happy birthday, Frederica… You turned 20, right?"

"Yes. Let's go. Out the window." Frederica said, leaping from the third story window, bending her knees upon hitting the ground, and beckoning for Rock to join her. Rock sighed, running from the middle of the room and jumping, bending and rolling as he hit the ground, not trusting his knees to hold up on their own. He stood up and they headed towards Luis', an excellent eatery considering their surroundings. As far as Rock knew, it had only been shot up three times since it opened twenty years ago.

That was practically a record. When they got there, they were greeted by Luis, a balding, portly man with a goatee that didn't quite suit him. He was the son of the previous owner, Luis Sr., who had died fairly recently.

"Ah, Rock! Frederica! Please, come in, sit down!" he said jovially, getting them menus and pouring some wine for them. "And a happy birthday to you, Frederica. Drinks are on the house tonight, of course!" He said. Frederica blushed. She hadn't expected such special treatment, especially since most people didn't know what she even looked like when she wasn't in her cleaning gear. She set her new chainsaw aside while Rock readjusted his belt with all his weapons on it.

"So… Are you planning on steak again?" Rock asked. Frederica nodded.

"Yes… Does my chainsaw run on gasoline?" She asked. Rock shook his head.

"It runs on children's tears… Just kidding. It runs on solar power. It has panels on the top there, see? You can also plug it in if you need to." Rock said. Soon, the waiter came over and took their orders. They both got steaks. Rock got his medium and Frederica got a medium-rare steak.

As they were waiting for dinner, Linus and Garda sat down at the table next to them.

"We won't bother you for long, yeah. Happy birthday, Frederica." Linus said. Garda stayed silent.

"She's even more beautiful than in her pictures. I love the dress, Frederica." Linus said, winking at her, causing Frederica to turn a pale shade of pink.

"Thank… You." She muttered as low as she could with her electrolarynx.

"Garda, dear… Do you have your weapons with you?" Linus asked. Garda nodded, looking at him as if to ask why. He looked at the door as two men in suits, carrying strange, high tech looking guns and a woman in a suit with kerambits on her waist. The three of them looked around and focused on Linus, looking directly at him, then at Garda.

"Frederica, Rock… You may want to take off. Those are some old friends of ours. They escaped like we did, but we didn't part on the best of terms. They became assassins and sold their expertise to the highest bidder and Garda and I disappeared into the world. I read that a team of three assassins recently accepted a job on our lives. This is going to get messy. Please leave." Linus said, his tone of voice completely changing from friendly to dead serious.

"No. We'll fight with you." Frederica said, picking up her chainsaw and looking at the assassins, whose expressions didn't change in the slightest. They seemed completely unamused by Frederica's threats, though. The three walked forward, taking their guns and kerambits out. The tallest man fired first, which Frederica blocked with her chainsaw, wading forward into battle. She clicked a button on her chainsaw, which roared into life, drawing startled screams from the rest of the patrons, who fled immediately.

"You have ruined my birthday dinner. If you do not want to end up on my slab, you will flee immediately!" Frederica growled. The woman smirked, stepping forward, taking out her kerambits and brandishing them, running in in a very angular movement, far faster than Frederica was expecting. Linus, Garda and Rock meanwhile supported her. Rock fired bullets at the woman, missing but forcing her to split her attention between him and Frederica, allowing her more mobility.

Garda took out dual shortswords and struck at the shorter man, who fired point-blank, but missed, and was rewarded only with a cut to the leg. Garda had to dodge the shorter woman, though, grabbing her arm and twisting, dislocating the woman's shoulder and taking both her Kerambits, hiding them on herself. Linus took out a gun and fired at the woman's head, who dodged, but took the bullet in the shoulder.

She grimaced and turned, shooting back at Linus, who cut sideways with an iron pipe, beating the bullet aside. He smirked, firing and planting the bullet right in the woman's knee. The woman growled angrily, falling to the ground, no longer able to walk. The taller man was hit then in the elbow by a bullet from Rock. He had been aiming at the man's chest, but the man was fast enough to avoid any vital areas but not fast enough to avoid being hit altogether.

"We have to leave! We were expecting to be against one superhuman, but not two! And we could have faced them if we had planned to take on two regular humans as well! We'll regroup and plan for another time!" The taller man shouted, picking up the woman and hurrying out of the restaurant with his two partners. Frederica put her new chainsaw away, sighing in relief as the new owner came back in to thank them. He shook Rock's, Frederica's, Linus's and Garda's hands.

"Thank you so much. It's likely that your intervention prevented my restaurant from being damaged more. I'd like to give you all your meals on the house." He said. Rock thanked him and sat back down. The restaurant was almost deserted now, thanks to the attack by the three Genesis subjects. The four were now sitting at the same table.

"So… Spill… Who were those people?" Rock asked. Garda sighed.

"They were 4M-008, 4M-015 and 4F-086. I believe they chose the names Ludmilla Kaczka, Zane Caldwell and Matthias Kuiper. I had heard that some of the individuals we escaped with began selling their services to the organization again. For the right price, of course. Either that, or there are others who want us dead. Either way, we need to be more careful.

"Garda, I want you to call Alric and Astrid and have them meet us at the restaurant. We'll all stay together for the time. I trust you, I know you can fight better than anyone. But it's good to have backup.

"I'll get in contact with Miss Balalaika… I'm sure that we can get Hotel Moscow to support us if we put it in the right context for them." Rock said, taking out his cell phone and dialing Hotel Moscow.

"Hello? Balalaika speaking." Came a cheerful voice from across the phone line.

"Hello, Miss Balalaika. We've got a bit of a problem. You know the three superhumans you recently hired?" Rock asked. Balalaika nodded.

"How could I forget? Half my members either fear fighting them or want revenge on them."

"Right. Well, three assassins just came into the restaurant that Frederica, Linus, Garda and I are eating at and attacked Linus and Garda… They appear to be former comrades of Garda and Linus, fellow superhumans who escaped from the same organization as they did. We're sure that if we remain together, we can at least mitigate the threat they pose, but I would appreciate assistance from Hotel Moscow, if you're willing." Rock said. Rock almost thought he heard Balalaika's smile as she spoke.

"We would be happy to help. Consider it a favor. The assistance that Alric, Astrid and Garda have already given us is greatly appreciated, and we would hate to lose allies such as them. Could you give us descriptions of the individuals in question?"

"There are three of them. One is thin, but muscular, tall at about 5'11", European in appearance. He has blue eyes and black hair.

"One is shorter, standing at about 5'8". His appearance is also European, maybe a little bit Slavic. He has brown eyes and black hair. He's muscular as well but bulkier than the taller man. The woman has long black hair that was in a braid that went down past her knees. She's about 5'2". She seemed like her hair was tied back by something heavy, so she may have a weight or a blade on her braid. She has deep blue eyes and looks like she's European, probably Slavic.

"The woman is called Ludmilla Kaczka, the tall man is called Zane Caldwell and the shorter man is called Matthias Kuiper. The woman carried kerambits and is probably skilled in other small bladed weapons. The taller man carried handguns and the shorter man had guns as well, but seemed skilled in hand-to-hand combat as well." Rock said. Balalaika actually laughed at this.

"You really took a detailed inventory of your enemy. You truly are a profoundly talented tactician, Rock." Balalaika said, winking and saying goodbye, hanging up the phone. Rock sighed. They had the support of Hotel Moscow. There was still the chance that they would die. But Rock was sure that they had a much better chance of making it through this. And with the injuries their enemy suffered, they probably wouldn't have to worry that night.

The taller man had taken a chainsaw to the chest. It hadn't cut through bone, but it had rent flesh and muscle, and it was likely that he would need stitches, even with his advanced healing. Rock went back out where the rest of the group was waiting for him. Dinner had been served and he sat down and ate with his friends. As they finished, Alric and Astrid arrived.

"Hello, Gook, Linus, Miss Sawyer, Garda. We have spoken and agreed to room near you for a time while all of the problems regarding our new enemies are sorted out. We have spoken to Miss Balalaika and she said she was already apprised of the problem. Who are these enemies? What are their names and former ID numbers?" Alric asked stoically. Linus sighed.

"4M-008, 4M-015 and 4F-086. Last I checked, they had called themselves Zane Caldwell, Matthias Kuiper and Ludmilla Kaczka." He said. Alric nodded and went through his computer that he had brought with him and looked up his former allies. He nodded as he familiarized himself with their abilities again.

"This is good." Alric said calmly. "I am certain that between the four of us, and using you, your lover and your allies," he said, turning to Rock and Frederica. "We can defeat these people. Hopefully we will not have to kill them, as I am more than just passingly fond of them, most especially of Ludmilla, toward whom I feel what I assume is a mild sexual attraction." He said this so matter-of-factly that it seemed almost out of place next to what he was actually saying.

However, Rock and Frederica merely nodded and they headed back towards Rock's apartment, where he went got Garda, Alric and Astrid a room next to Lagoon Company's own. It had recently been vacated by people who refused to pay and ended up on the business end of a .45. Frederica's company had come in and cleaned everything up just a few days earlier. Garda no longer had to worry about being far away from Linus either, since they would be situated right next to each other.

At least until they either defeated their new enemy or died at said enemy's hands.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

"So, you're saying that you guys're being chased by more super freaks like Linus!" Revy asked excitedly. Rock nodded. Revy whooped and pumped her fist in the air.

"Yeah! Sounds like shit's finally getting' interesting! The air's been getting super stuffy with your boring love life with Leatherface here! Still, even a stiff like you managed to get 'er a good birthday gift! That chainsaw'll be 'er new best friend!" Revy said, being much louder than she needed to be.

"Do you mind Miss Lee, if we stay in Lagoon Company's room for the night? We will assist in setting up defenses that might at least make it harder for the rooms to be infiltrated." Alric said. Astrid nodded.

"Do what you gotta… But if you keep me up, I'll murder you and bury your corpse at sea."

"Actually, an ocean burial might be quite a peaceful end to a chaotic life." Astrid said with a bland smile. Revy sneered, taking off her shorts and tank top and going to bed.

"Does she frequently strip on a moment's notice like this?" Astrid asked. Rock nodded.

"She was a pornographic actress before she became a gunman. Stripping in front of other people isn't something she's gonna be embarrassed about." Rock said. Revy flipped Rock off and walked into her room, flopping down on her bed and yelling at everyone else to shut up.

The rest of the evening was spent fairly silently applying traps and alarms around the room that would prevent intruders, but that would recognize those already present and not activate. Finally, around midnight, Alric sighed and sat down.

"We should be done setting up alarms and traps. It's not likely that we could be any better defended than we currently are." Alric said. Garda picked up from there.

"We do not believe that they will attack us tonight. Their healing may be above human levels, but they still need time to recuperate and reassess their plans. It's unlikely that they won't plan to kill everyone they believe is involved with us. That almost certainly includes Rock and Frederica, both of whom directly engaged in combat with them." Garda finished. Astrid started talking next.

"However, Dutch, Rebecca and Benny should not consider themselves exempt from their vengeance. While revenge won't be their primary objective, they may become cruel and unusual in getting rid of Frederica, Rock or any of you, and not simply because you are in their way, but because you embarrassed them. Their willingness to harm or even cripple you before they kill you is going to be almost certain."

"It would be advised that you go out in groups of at least two and always have at least one of us with you. Never travel without a weapon of some sort and ample ammunition if that weapon is a firearm." Linus said, picking up from Astrid. "It's likely that they will simply be observing your behavior for a time. They were caught off-guard. They won't cower from combat if brought to them, but they will avoid it for now if they can. It's what I would do if I found I was less prepared than I believed." Linus finished.

Benny, Dutch and Rock nodded. Frederica, who had joined them that night, simply on the chance that she was attacked while alone. She could take care of herself, but against superhumans, she figured it was best to have someone who knew how to take care of superhumans.

"I like your new chainsaw, Miss Sawyer. So you were the one that Rock bought that for, yeah?" Linus asked. Frederica blushed slightly and nodded.

"It was our anniversary. Rock was better prepared for it than I was." Frederica said in her gravelly, mechanical voice.

"You know, I think I have some regenerative serum that I could use on that voice box if you like. I would need a surgically clean environment to do it in to avoid contamination, and I would need to cut your neck open.

"But if I could re-injure your voice box in a similar way that as was originally cut, I could probably make it regenerate. It would only be a two hour long procedure at the longest. I was going to save this for myself if I was ever injured beyond my natural ability to heal. But I think you probably need it more than I do, yeah?" Linus asked, his fingers ghosting over the scar on Frederica's throat.

Frederica hissed and pulled a knife, striking at Linus, who dodged adroitly, grabbing the knife from her hand and flipping it, throwing it at the door where it stuck and vibrated for a second before going still. She didn't much care for people who touched her, especially in such a vulnerable area. She could probably count on one hand the number of people she would allow such an intimate act from. Shenhua and Lotton were two, and Rock was a third.

Other than them, she couldn't think of a single person other than herself for whom she would expose herself like that.

"Sorry, Miss Sawyer. That was inappropriate of me. I understand why you're so guarded in a place like Roanapur. I won't do it again without your permission." Linus said.

"You do not need to apologize. I am not angry." Frederica said. Rock chuckled. In Japan if someone attacked him like that, it would almost certainly be out of anger. But in Roanapur, where vulnerability was usually met with death, it was probably not uncommon to lash out defensively if someone were to touch him like that.

"Good… I'd still be happy to fix your voice box. There's about a 5% chance that it will simply regenerate to the original state and your voice won't be fixed. There's maybe a 10% chance that your voice will be different from before. I've done similar operations in the past, though never on a location as sensitive as the voice box, so there's maybe a 15-20% chance that something unexpected will happen."

"Is there any chance that something weird won't happen?" Frederica asked defensively. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but Linus's offer to help her like this was already causing her to feel a glimmer of hope. That scared her. She didn't want to be disappointed if it didn't work. But there was no way to know if she didn't allow it.

"Fine… You can do it… But only if Rock is there." Frederica said. Rock gasped, pointing questioningly at himself. Frederica nodded. He was one of the few people she trusted almost unconditionally.

"I'd be honored." Rock said. Frederica turned to Linus.

"How much will this cost?" She asked. Money wasn't really an issue for her. She was doing very well with her business. But it would be good to know how much she would be spending.

"Well… Normally a procedure like this would cost around the equivalent of 100,000 American dollars. But for you, I'll only charge you the cost of the equipment along with a minor work fee of… Say 1,000 dollars?" Linus suggested. Frederica scowled.

"Why so cheap?" She asked. Linus shrugged.

"Consider it a mitzvah… A good deed. I've done a lot of evil in my life. If I can even begin to make up for it, I guess. I want to warn you that the chances that it won't work are notable. Not huge, but significant. I've never done this operation on someone whose wound has so completely healed over." Linus said. Frederica nodded.

"I will take that risk… So long as you can promise me I won't die." She said. Linus laughed.

"Of course you won't die. The worst that will happen is that it won't work. There's a minor chance of a bacterial infection in the affected area. But antibiotics which I will give you would take care of it within a week." He said. Frederica nodded.

"I will take this surgery. How soon can we do it?" Frederica asked.

"That depends. Do you have any location that is sterile that we can use as an operating room?"

"My boss has such a room. Hold on." Frederica said, taking out a cell phone. Linus pulled out a gun and shot it, though, doing no damage to Frederica's hand in the attack. The phone was destroyed, though. Frederica sighed. "Alright, why did you do that?" She asked.

"Use my phone. Yours is likely to be traced." He said. Frederica nodded and dialed Chang's number.

"Y'ello? Bai Ji-Shin Chang, at your service!" Came a friendly voice.

"Hello… This is Sawyer. I want to know if I can use your operating room. I have an… Acquaintance who plans to do an operation and he needs a sterile environment."

"Sure… Who's getting the operation done?"

"Me. He's going to fix my larynx and voice box."

"Really? Huh, and I thought I was in contact with the most advanced medical practitioners in the world." Chang said with a laugh. Frederica nodded.

"Well, either way, you're welcome to it. But I expect you to be available for work on Monday." He said.

"Alright… Goodbye." Frederica said, hanging up and turning to Linus, who took out some medical tools and injections.

"We'd better get going now. Ludmilla and her crew heal fast, and they won't hesitate to use the substance that makes them heal faster. By tomorrow, they'll be good as new and ready to plan anew." Linus said, sweeping Frederica up in a bridal style and leapt from the window.

Rock jumped from the window as well, grabbing his weapons first and rolling upon hitting the ground, getting into a standing position and running almost immediately.

"Good evening, Mr. Chang. It's a pleasure to see you again. I apologize for coming so late, but we figure, with the threats on our group right now, it's best if we finish this little surgery as quickly as possible, yeah?" Linus asked. Chang shrugged and opened the door to the operating room. Linus walked in and took Frederica's vitals, seeing that she was normal and he injected her with a black liquid that put her to sleep almost immediately.

Rock sat down, putting on surgical clothes to prevent any contamination, holding her hand gently.

"You're a good man, Rock. No matter how you've fallen from your conventional humanity, you're still a good person." Linus said, taking a scalpel, removing it from its individual wrapping and slicing open directly on the scar, taking a look at Frederica's vocal chords and her voice box. He cut the scarred ends of the two parts very carefully and injected them with a small amount of regenerative serum.

As they began to heal, very quickly, he watched to make sure that no further scarring took place. Over the next ten minutes, he observed and when they fully sealed and stopped bleeding, he nodded and closed the opening on her throat, injecting it with more regenerative serum and then watched over twenty minutes while the throat sealed itself. He then turned to Rock.

"If all went as planned, she'll wake up in five to eight minutes and be able to talk. Her voice will be raspy at first, mainly from misuse. It will get better over time. I recommend voice exercises. She can sing if she prefers to practice controlled use of her voice, or just plain old voice exercises if that's easier.

"I think she'll enjoy singing. She says she was a good singer before her throat was cut. She could sing in multiple languages… She was from Ireland."

"Ahh… So you'll have a girl with an Irish brogue, yeah?" Linus asked, taking a look down at Frederica's throat, which was almost completely healed. It was still a little red and the line on it had not turned white yet. However it was quickly sealing over and becoming less and less visible. Over the next few minutes, it turned white, then began to blend with her skin color. It never fully became the same color as her skin, but it was less visible than it had once been, even her old scar.

Slowly, Frederica woke up, her eyes opening and looking around at Linus, her eyes widening and grabbing him by the throat, her fingers constricting until she remembered where she was and she let go.

"I'm… Sorry…" She rasped, her eyes going wide. She put a hand on her throat, feeling around for the wraparound electrolarynx. Not finding it, she felt tears filling her eyes.

"I… Can talk…" She whispered.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

"I… Can talk…" Frederica whispered again, seeming to not quite be able to believe it.

"Yes… But you'll want to be careful with your voice at first. You have your voice back, but as you can see, it's still quite raspy and out of use, yeah?" Linus said. Frederica nodded.

"If you want to sing, you can… That will be a good exercise for controlling the strength and volume of your voice. Just don't overdo it, or you won't be able to use your voice for a while. Moderation, yeah?"

Frederica nodded again, taking a deep breath and starting to sing. Her voice seemed even raspier and gravelly when she was singing, but somehow, Rock thought it was beautiful. He could sense that when she had full control of her voice, that it would probably be amazing. Even now, just singing Country Roads, there was something magnetic about her performance. She had to stop about halfway through for a coughing fit. Linus didn't seem surprised.

"That's bound to happen occasionally… Take it easy with your voice for a few weeks… When was the last time, before now of course that you were able to speak?"

"I think I was ten or so. I'm twenty, now so about nine-ish years ago." Frederica guessed. Linus nodded.

"I thought that might be the case. Take it slow. Talk, but don't overextend yourself."

"Of course… I owe you 1,000 dollars?" Frederica asked. Linus nodded.

In reality, even the regenerative serum would have been worth around 10,000 dollars a vial on the Black Market. But he didn't have that much money available to him at the moment, and he just wanted some money to spend on a date with Garda, and he wasn't going to demand 10,000 dollars for a few cuts and an injection.

"Alright… Well, we better get back to the apartments. There's a chance that they'll have agents looking for us in Roanapur. I don't think they'll have had time to set up their contacts yet. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. We've arranged for your friends, Lotton and Shenhua to join us at the apartment building. We'll only be there for a little while, so we can split them between your room and our room. Just so long as they're not in danger from our erstwhile allies." Linus said.

Rock nodded, thinking that Revy and Shenhua would no doubt be fighting all night. As they were leaving the building together, Frederica counted out ten 100 dollar bills and gave them to Linus, who thanked her. Frederica blushed, and spoke again. Somehow, she still couldn't believe it.

"I should be thanking you. Is there anything I can do to thank you?"

"Just help me take care of our new enemy and I think we can call it even, yeah?" Linus asked. Frederica nodded. Then her ears perked up.

"Hey, um… Where did you guys get these names you chose for yourselves? I have never heard most of them before." She said. Linus shrugged.

"Baby name websites, books. There's one woman, I guess she might still be out there somewhere who loved Shakespeare. She called herself Ophelia. One person decided to call himself Joseph. He was satisfied with his life in the organization and fought to keep us there. We killed him. It's too bad. He would have helped us a lot. He was a master of stealth tactics, yeah." Linus said, heading into the building that Lagoon Company was staying in and heading up the stairs, where Shenhua and Lotton were standing by the door.

"Ah, you back finally, yes you are!" Shenhua said cheerfully. "Sawyer! How you surgery go?" She asked. Sawyer turned a faint pink.  
"I can… Talk again. Linus is a surgeon too, I guess."

"Well, not a professional surgeon, yeah. I learned medical surgery as part of my training in Genesis.

"We were expected to be able to perform surgery on each other in the unlikely event that any of us were injured in combat." Linus finished. Shenhua and Lotton nodded.

"How did you manage to fix her vocal cords, Linus?" Lotton asked. Linus sighed. He clearly wasn't going to be able to escape answering their questions. They were Sawyer's roommates, and Linus assumed, her friends.

"Well… There's a serum I have that stimulates regenerative cell division. Basically, when injected, it causes the body part so affected to stimulate rapid cellular regeneration that heals the injury in a time between 10 minutes and three hours, depending on the severity of the injury and the location of the injury. For Sawyer, it took about 20 minutes to completely heal her vocal cords, yeah.

"Because the scars are now healed and the vocal cords are whole, she can talk again. I don't know if her voice is the same as before. Well, it was around 10 years ago, so her voice would likely have changed whether or not she had gotten her vocal cords severed." Linus said, seeming very much like a clinical doctor at that moment.

"We should get inside, yeah. I'll set the room so that it doesn't register you as enemies… Shenhua, Lotton." Linus said. Shenhua raised an eyebrow.

"What going on? Sawyer is in trouble?"

"Well… Not exactly… I'm the one being hunted. But Miss Sawyer was nice enough to help me fight off my attackers, so now I suspect they'll treat her as a target as well.

"My friends aren't known to be understanding or forgiving. They will kill their target and anyone who obstructs their mission. The fact that they're not being paid to kill Sawyer means nothing to them. Sawyer hurt them. She made their job more difficult, so now she's an enemy. The same is true of Rock, and I don't think they'll hesitate to attack you to get to her."

"Why that matter? We good enough keep ourselves safe, yes we are… Well… I good enough keep us safe." Shenhua said, smirking at Lotton, who blushed slightly in embarrassment. It was true. He still wasn't terribly skilled with his guns. He was getting much better, but not good enough.

"Well… My friends are superhuman. I'm afraid if they set their sights on you with any seriousness, you really don't stand a chance.

"Rock has already contacted Hotel Moskow, and Miss Sawyer has obtained the Chinese Triad's assistance in one way or another. But our position is still a tenuous one. Please, come in. We'll have some alcohol and go to bed."

"Oh, no alcohol for me! I teetotaler, yes I am." Shenhua said.

"And I have no head for alcohol. I appreciate the offer, though."

"Lotton, you seem slightly out of place in Roanapur. Even Rock, who was a businessman before he came here seems more sinister than you. How did you even end up here?"

"Well… I wonder that myself sometimes. I'm too clumsy to be a gunman. I'm not charming enough to be a gigolo, as several people have suggested, and frankly, I'm not smart enough to be a white collar worker.

"I guess Canada just wasn't the right place for me, so I came to a place that was as different from Canada as I could conceive. Perhaps the United States would have been a better choice." Lotton said, seeming despondent. Linus laughed.

"I lived in California for a while. The US isn't so great. The people are obsessed with guns and the government declares itself a democracy, even though it's clearly an oligarchy." Linus said.

Lotton nodded. Then he cocked his head.

"What's an oligarchy?" He asked. Linus sighed, shaking his head. Lotton really was terribly dense.

"An oligarchy is a government in which the wealthiest rule. It's a system that tends to perpetuate a wide divide between the rich and the poor by making the rich richer and the poor increasingly impotent. Linus described America very well, especially with the current leaders." Rock said.

"I see. What a shame. I was under the impression that America was ruled by criminals and incompetents. I thought I would fit right in." He sighed. Rock was suddenly struck by the impression that Lotton was much cleverer than he gave himself credit for. The current leaders were almost certainly criminals, although nothing had been adequately proven yet. And they were certainly nothing if not incompetent.

"All politicians are criminals… They just rule the country, so nobody can complain about their crimes." Revy said. "Now get your asses in here and shut the fuck up! I'm tryin' to sleep!" She demanded. Lotton sat down quietly. As soon as everyone but Revy was sitting around the table, Linus sat down and started talking, making sure to stay quiet.

"Alright, so we've got all the traps set up. There's almost no way for anyone to break in without alerting me. We've fixed Miss Sawyer up and we have a small army of highly competent fighters on hand. I suggest that anyone who needs to go anywhere go in pairs or threes, preferably with at least one superhuman. There's always the chance that a normal human could take down one of the Genesis Project by chance, but the odds aren't what I'd like them to be, yeah?

"Tomorrow, we'll go out and draw the enemy into a location that we can control the fight. We'll use Hotel Moskow and the Triad to our advantage to funnel them into the area of our choice and take them down if we can't turn them to our side. Alric and Ludmilla were quite close during their time in Genesis. They would have chosen each other to have children with if we hadn't betrayed the organization and escaped before that could happen.

"So I'll draw up a plan for all of us, if you don't mind. Dutch, Rock… Maybe you two could watch in? I know that you were in the Navy, Dutch and you were instrumental in defeating some mercenaries that were hunting you, Rock… I expect that you know your team better than I do. Know your abilities and your strengths and weaknesses. Rock… Tell me about Revy… She seems to be a bit of a wild card, yeah?" Linus asked. Rock nodded.

"Well, almost everyone that Revy has been in combat with has lost their mind in some way or another. She has a very provocative style of combat. She'll harass and antagonize while she fights and unless she senses that she can't drag on the battle without losing, she'll make the battle go as long as possible. She likes aiming to cripple rather than kill and watch the person try to fight anyway. She's good at making people lose their temper just with her wild and unpredictable style of fighting.

"She can't be pinned down very easily, so she should utilize that while drawing the enemy's fire."

"Good… Good… What about Miss Sawyer? What are her strengths?"

"She can deflect bullets with her chainsaw. She's done it multiple times, once when she was fighting Revy and used her chainsaw to block Revy's attacks. Roberta was able to break the chain on Frederica's chainsaw with a bullet."

"Alright, well that won't likely happen on her new chainsaw, yeah. It's resistant to all but the heaviest gunfire. A sniper bullet travelling at thousands of meters per second might be able to snap the chain. But nothing less than that, yeah." Linus said.

"Frederica… Tell me all that you know about Miss Shenhua and Mr. Lotton."

"Well…" Frederica said, her voice still a bit raspy, but natural. "Lotton's ability to survive things that would kill even a greater fighter is probably his greatest ability. When Lotton, Shenhua and me were hired to kill a woman named Greenback Jane, he wore a bulletproof vest to survive gunfire, but he also survived a fall from about 30 feet and landing on his back. It was fairly impressive. He uses dual handguns now, though in the past, he was able to use dual Mausers.

"So he was clearly strong enough to wield automatic weapons one-handed."

"You have a beautiful accent. You're Irish, yeah?" Linus asked. Frederica blushed slightly, nodding.

"I'm from Belfast, yeah… I mean, I'm from Belfast." Frederica said. Linus nodded.

"I've been to Belfast… A long time ago. It's beautiful. It rains a lot there, yeah." Linus said. "Well, all the same… Tell me all you can about Rock… I know a bit about him, but I'd like to know all that I can, yeah."

Linus said this to Dutch, who smirked and took a long drag on his cigarette, blowing it out away from the crowd, especially Rock who had quit and was doing well staying off of cigarettes.

"Well… Rock is about as smart as they come. A better tactician I've never met… There was a situation in Roanapur almost a year ago when Rock took it upon himself to manipulate not only us… But also Hotel Moscow, the Chinese Triad, the American government, all of Roanapur and a psychotic terrorist.

"He played all of us like puppets and saved all of Roanapur because of it. It was a little bit frightening to see how damned effective he was. But what he lacks in physical ability, he more than makes up for in analytical genius. And I thought it was impressive when he outwitted some damn mercenaries sent to kill us. That was nothing compared to some of the stuff he's managed to do since then. Still, he's becoming more skilled physically. I've seen him shooting with Revy and training in his martial arts.

"He's getting good. It can only help. He's hardly a master of any of the martial arts he's practicing, but he's good." Dutch said. Linus nodded.

"I can talk…" Frederica muttered, tears filling her eyes again… I… Can talk…" Frederica muttered.

"You can freak out about your little existential crisis later, Freddy, yeah? Right now we're kinda busy with keeping ourselves alive." Linus said. Frederica growled.

"Don't call me Freddy! Call me Sawyer or Frederica…"

"I'm sorry, Miss Sawyer. I didn't mean to be flippant. Please excuse my rudeness. Benny, tell me about Dutch and Dutch, you tell me about Benny. Benny, you first, yeah?"

"Right… Well, Dutch is an exceptional leader. He was in the Navy back during Vietnam. He's got a range of skills from leader to gunslinger to fistfighter.

"He's definitely the leader of our group. I don't know that any of us could do better." Benny said.

"Good, good. What are his weaknesses? We need those as well." Linus said. Rock stepped in here.

"Dutch has many of the same weaknesses as most other citizens of Roanapur. He's arrogant. So am I, so is Revy. But primarily, he's very levelheaded, even when a certain amount of panic would be warranted." Rock said. Linus nodded. "Now Dutch, you talk about Benny."

"Well… He doesn't have a lot of physical skills. Most of his ability is in hacking. He's hacked government computers… Sadly, that's what brought him here initially. He got caught hacking and we had to save him. But, his skill with computers is nearly unrivaled." Dutch said. Linus nodded again.

"I think I get the general idea of your group, now, yeah. I'm sure I can work out a plan. How good are you at taunting enemies, Rock?"

"Not as good as Revy is. She's driven most of her enemies insane just from fighting them. She's a very provocative individual." Rock said, causing Frederica to glare at him and touch her throat, only to realize that she could talk normally again.

"Oh, yeah. I can talk… Rock… I hear you talking like that about another woman again, these mercenaries will be the least of your worries." Frederica said. Rock nodded.

"Sorry, dear. I just meant that…"

"You should quit while you're ahead, Rock." Linus said with a laugh.

"Sorry, Frederica… I didn't mean anything by it." Frederica laughed at this.

"I know. It feels weird to be talking again… Does my voice sound alright?"

"I've never heard a more beautiful voice." Rock said, kissing Frederica tenderly, causing her to blush deeply. Rock always somehow managed to make her feel self-conscious.

Lotton and Shenhua were sitting there. Shenhua was smiling widely, like she was laughing inwardly while Lotton had his usual deadpan look. Finally, the group all went to bed, finding somewhere to sleep. Rock had to say, even sleeping on the floor, he had slept in less comfortable places. One time, he had been stuffed in a crate and had to sleep with his knees tucked up to his chin. One time, he had slept tied to a chair. He had definitely slept in worse conditions than this.

And now, Frederica was sleeping next to him, her arms wrapped around him, breathing slowly, occasionally twitching when she dreamed. Rock silently wondered what someone like Frederica dreamed about. Still, he fell asleep, smiling gently as he drifted off into his own dreams.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

"Frederica yawned widely, stretching as she slowly and carefully moved herself from Rock's arms. Even though she knew that there were people after them, she had slept well. Finally sleeping next to the man she loved so much felt nice. The warmth was comforting. It felt strange to be so comfortable with someone, even stranger than being able to talk. As she stood up, Rock opened his eyes, his hand brushing Frederica's leg. She gasped, turning around and whispering.

"Sorry, Rock… Didn't mean to wake you up." She said. Rock shook his head, smiling.

"No, I get up early anyhow. Revy expects me to run in the morning… Build up my endurance, she says." Rock said, standing and putting on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. He looked odd out of his shirt and tie, but a little more casual. She pulled on a pair of shorts as well, and walked out the door with him.

"Do you mind if I join you?" She asked. Rock nodded.

"I'd like that. Do you have any runs that you're used to taking?"

"Not from here, but I know all the roads in Roanapur. We'll get back home eventually. You might want to take your weapons with you. I'll take some knives." Frederica said. Rock nodded, putting his belt with his guns and knives on it around his waist while Frederica took some of Shenhua's knives. She was sure Shenhua wouldn't mind.

The two ran out the door and Rock leapt down the stairs, curling into a ball on the second set and rolling down three flights before getting up on the bottom and waiting for Frederica, who decided to slide down the railing, showing excellent balance as she turned for the different flights and finally dismounted when she hit the bottom.

"Nice, _Freddy_ …" Rock said with a mischievous grin.

"Actually, I'm more of a fan of Michael Meyers… But you knew that already. You're just teasing me, aren't you?" She asked. Rock laughed, taking her in his arms, kissing her tenderly on the lips.

"Yeah… I like Freddy. It's a cute nickname."

"In case you hadn't noticed, cute isn't exactly what most people capitalize on in Roanapur." Frederica said with a coy smile, turning from Rock and setting off running. As the two got outside, they were called from up in their room.

"Hey! Rock! Miss Sawyer! You shouldn't be out alone! Hold on!" Garda shouted, leaping from the window and landing next to the two of them. Rock smiled politely.

His smile turned to a look of surprise as Linus landed on the ground next to her.

"Hey… I hear you're a bit of a lady killer. I wouldn't wantcha puttin' the moves on Garda, yeah?"

"There's no need to worry about that. I have no intentions for Garda, Linus." Linus shrugged and said that they should start running. The foursome hurried off. Frederica showed that she was pretty good at acrobatics as well, flipping and turning when they went over obstacles.

Even given the fact that she was primarily a strong opponent wielding her chainsaw with such ease, but she was also fairly agile, able to leap and bound with Rock and Linus.  
"Hey, Frederica… You're pretty lithe… Where'dya learn to run and dodge like that?" He asked. Rock scowled.

"If you have my promise not to flirt with Garda, I'd like your promise not to flirt with Frederica."

"The difference is that I have nothing to fear from either of you. You have everything to fear from all three of us. Garda, Frederica and myself. But you make a fair point. I won't flirt with Frederica."

"You really don't stand a chance, anyway." Frederica said with a smile. Linus stared for a moment, then laughed loudly at the idea that there was anything he 'didn't stand a chance at'.

Suddenly, Rock's eyes narrowed. He turned and grabbed his guns, firing two shots. For a moment, it looked like there was nobody there. But then, Ludmilla stepped out from behind the trash can.

"Hello, Genesis 4M-098. And Genesis 4F-029. It's been a while since we were really able to talk. Your Asian friend here is quite handsome." Ludmilla said. Rock scowled.

"Why are you doing this? Linus is just trying to make a living. He's not harming your organization. He's not planning any revenge."

"Oh, and excellent English, too. Color me impressed. No, we're only here because we were hired to chase him… And his woman… And any other traitors we found will give us extra money for each one. It really is nothing personal. You may as well put your gun down. You'll never hit me.

"You would need to be at point blank range to even have a chance of killing me." Ludmilla said. Rock could tell she was bluffing. He may not have been able to hit her. But he could provide backup and serve as a distraction while Linus and Garda, the ones with an actual chance of hurting them fought head on. Still, he really would rather negotiate with enemies than attack them. The restaurant was the odd situation out. They were in immediate danger, and it was fight or run.

"Is there any chance we could work out a deal with you, Miss Kaczka? I'd rather not fight with you if I had my choice." Rock said, putting his gun away and holding his hands up in a display of peaceful intentions. Ludmilla actually laughed at this.

"Is this guy for real, Linus?" She asked. Linus smiled helplessly.

"I'm afraid so. My research on his company showed that Rock was quite the diplomat, even before he became a member of Lagoon Company. He worked for a Japanese corporation. I learned that he also manipulated the entirety of Roanapur at one point while a drugged up guerilla expert named Rosarita Cisneros was on the warpath against the US army. So if anyone could negotiate with someone like you, it would be him." Linus said. Rock held his hand out.

"Linus, Frederica, Garda… Put your weapons away. If you don't like the terms I lay out, you can get back to killing each other in a few minutes, right? We have all day. How about we have some breakfast first, Miss Kaczka? It's on me." Rock said. Ludmilla seemed to think for a minute, twirling her hair around her finger, seeming so human in that moment.

"Sure… I'm kinda hungry after the healing I had to do last night." Ludmilla said, actually smiling.

Rock seemed to sigh with relief, taking Ludmilla and the rest of them to a café, where they were seated immediately. For a while, they just looked at their menus. Then Ludmilla set it down, looking fiercely at Rock, smiling again.

"I don't really want to kill you, Rock… But you seem not to be leaving us much of a choice. Your unwillingness to abandon the traitors leaves us in a delicate situation." Ludmilla said.

"I suppose I could say the same about you, Miss Kaczka…" Rock said with an easy smile.

"I feel like you would be better liked if you became part of Roanapur than if you try to fight against it. Lagoon Company, in our many jobs have made contacts with the three major crime families that are currently running the show here. Included in those families is Hotel Moscow. We've asked them for a favor, and they've agreed to hunt you and your two allies down."

"They're just normal humans. They don't scare me." Ludmilla said confidently.

"Perhaps not, but they're former Soviet Special Forces. The best of the best, some of the most organized, most tactical and most ruthless. How do you think they got to the top as they did? In an anarchy, the strongest rule. And Hotel Moscow got to the top by being the strongest.

"You can kill me if you must. But that won't stop Hotel Moscow from hunting the three of you down and putting bullets in your skulls. Regeneration aside, I don't think you can survive a bullet to the head." Rock said. Ludmilla nodded. She couldn't deny that a bullet to the head would kill her.

"But my goal in this wasn't to threaten you. I really hope that we can work out a mutually agreeable deal. We're hoping to work with you rather than against you." Rock said.

Ludmilla laughed. She actually had a very pretty voice. Her laugh sounded like a silver bell. Rock couldn't stop himself blushing slightly. Ludmilla's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing, simply smiling at Rock. He had to say that Ludmilla, like Linus seemed to have human reactions down.

"Well… I appreciate your attempts to negotiate, but I'm afraid if we turn on our employer, that would harm our reputation which to this point has been excellent.

"You could say that we're among the most reputable mercenaries amongst the international underground. We've never yet failed a mission, diplomatic or otherwise. We've assassinated top political figures in the world. Do you remember the assassination of Rufus Scomeau, the French Prime Minister?"

"I do. That was highly publicized, especially since the perpetrator was never caught."

"That was us… Well, Mathias used a sniper rifle that he created himself. The bullet entered the target's skull, exploded to ensure that the target didn't survive and then exited, after which it vaporized completely, leaving no trace of the bullet. Excuse me a moment." Ludmilla said politely, taking out a gun and shooting a metal pole. The bullet bounced off the pole, then bounced off an iron pipe, then hit a man in the leg. The man shouted in pain.

"Damnit!"

"Yuri?" Rock asked, his eyes widening. Yuri was a member of Hotel Moscow. Ludmilla had noticed him and shot him before he even got within 50 feet of her.

"Now you see, your friends, Hotel Moscow can't touch us. So perhaps you can stop your ridiculous bluff. Still, I admire your courage in trying to negotiate with me.

"How about this? We can't just stop trying to kill you, Linus… Garda… I am sorry. I like you as a person. But this is just business."

"Is there nothing we can offer you that would put you off wanting to kill us? Frankly, I think that if all four of us faced all three of you, there's no telling whether any of us would survive. You don't want to die either, do you?" Garda asked.

"Well… It's true we don't want to die. But we cannot just abandon our job. What would that look like on our record?" Ludmilla asked. Linus snapped his fingers.

"You could fake your deaths. I have just the way to do it. I always carry a few vials of hibernation serum with me. A few drops on a bullet or a knife will put you into a hibernative state for a few days. You'd be declared dead and buried. We'd dig your graves up and you could start anew."

"What about our names? I've come to like the name Ludmilla. It's a pretty name."

"What about Kaczka? Are you terribly attached to that last name?" Linus asked. Ludmilla shook her head.

"Not really. It's just a name. I'm sure I could think of a different last name in a jiffy if I were so inclined." Ludmilla said. Rock smiled politely and reached across the table to shake Ludmilla's hand.

"Well… I suppose as the leader of the group, I'm entitled to make decisions for the group.

"I will agree to this. You're on. You have to succeed at pretending to kill us. You'll have to make it convincing, and so we'll have to try to kill you as well. So… You know, don't bring anyone you can't stand to lose, right?" Ludmilla asked. Rock nodded, looking at Frederica, who looked back at Rock.

"Maybe you should stay behind." They both said at the same time.

"Me stay behind? What about you?" They continued, again at the same time.

Finally, Frederica stopped talking.

"Listen, Frederica… I don't want you getting hurt, but I'm sure I won't be able to convince you to stay behind, and I can assure you that I won't stay behind. But I can promise you that I'm not going to go in for close combat with monsters like these people. Frankly, I think the best I can do is shoot my guns from the background, carry plenty of ammo and hope to keep them distracted." Rock said in an undertone.

"You know I can hear you perfectly, right? You may want to plan your murder of us somewhere we can't hear you." Ludmilla said. Rock nodded, shaking her hand, finding that she had an extremely strong grasp, nearly crushing his hand.

"You need to strengthen your grip. Here. Take one of these. Set it to low at first and build up as you get stronger." Ludmilla said, handing Rock a grey isometric grip strengthener.

"Take this one for your other hand as well." Ludmilla said. Rock nodded and slipped them in his pockets. It would surely help when using his guns. They had a bit of kick to them, and even with his growing shoulder and arm strength, a strong grip would help him with firing.

"Alright… So, we're agreed. You try to "kill us" and we'll try to kill you. Say… Tomorrow evening at 8. We'll arrange it with the restaurant. We wouldn't want there not to be witnesses." Ludmilla said

"Agreed." Rock said, finishing his meal and standing up. The rest of the group stood up as well and Rock, Garda, Linus and Frederica continued their run, finishing around 10 am and heading back to the apartment.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Your name is Bao, correct?" Ludmilla asked, pulling her hair back with one hand and braiding it perfectly, tying it and looping a small kerambit into the end. Bao nodded nervously. Somehow, this woman reminded him of Roberta, the killer maid. The air about her was just as terrifying, and the two men that walked in after her seemed just as dangerous.

"Look, if you're going to shoot up the place, just get the fuck outta here!

"I've had way too many of those in here, even compared to other establishments in Roanapur."

"Well, what do you expect in a city of thieves, murderers, conmen and dishonorable discharges."

"So what do you want?" Bao demanded, sounding braver than he felt.

"Well… As you say, Lagoon Company and we are going to be attending your establishment tonight, and we need at least one impartial witness if you will.

"A person to confirm that we are truly dead. We may not die. We're not making it easy for them, but there will be a shootout here, and some or all of us are probably going to die. Here's the money to repair your shithole bar. I trust 500,000 dollars will cover it?" Ludmilla asked, putting a briefcase with hundred dollar bills on the counter. Bao's eyes widened. That would cover his bar and pay for some great upgrades to it. He nodded, not mentioning that his bar was barely insured for a fifth of that.

But he understood what was going on. He was being bribed. It was a hefty bribe, clearly by someone who had a huge stake in this farce.

"Listen, you may just want to skip town or fake your death some other way. If anyone can kill Revy from Lagoon Company, I ain't met them yet. That bitch has the Devil's luck on her side.

"She's faced down killer maids, Yakuza assassins, chainsaw wielding maniacs and terrorist groups and come out on top every time. You won't come out with all your limbs intact if you fight her."

"Let's agree to disagree on that one, Bao. Will you accept our recompense or not? We trust that also buys your silence?" Ludmilla asked. Bao nodded.

"Good… We'll see you tonight. You may want to clear out the bar. I don't particularly care if your customers die, but it can't look good on your bar's reputation."

"For 100,000 extra, I can have the bar reserved for you this evening." Bao said cunningly. Ludmilla's eyes narrowed and she threw another briefcase at him. He opened it and found more hundred dollar bills inside.

"Where are you getting all this money? Even the top agencies in Roanapur don't have this kinda loot!"

"You needn't concern yourself with our methods." Ludmilla said, removing her sunglasses to reveal razor sharp cobalt blue eyes. She looked like she could be a member of the CIA or some secret intelligence agency, but she spoke with a strange accent that Bao couldn't quite place.

"Whereabouts are you from, lady?"

"Let's say somewhere in Europe. My actual country of origin is irrelevant. Needless to say, I'm not a national of that country." She said. "Thank you for your cooperation. Lagoon will come to call at about 7 and we will be arriving at about 7:30 tonight. Have your bar cleared out by 6:30. I trust that 100,000 dollars will buy three hours of time alone in your bar? We will provide suitable protection for you.

"The bar itself looks to be bulletproof?"

"Lined with Tungsten Carbide." Bao said. That was one of the most expensive aspects of his bar.

"Good. Remain behind the bar until the shooting and shouting stops and you'll be safe. We won't bring any armor piercing rounds." Ludmilla said to Bao's shock.

"Who the fuck are you!" He demanded, insistent now that he get a straight answer.

"We are monsters that terrify even the residents of this fearless town." Ludmilla said, turning sharply and leading her allies out

"Alright… Rock… Revy… Dutch… You have enough extra clips for your guns?" Linus asked as they prepared to go out. The three nodded.

"Miss Sawyer, your chainsaw is completely full on battery?" He asked. Frederica nodded.

"Garda, Alric, Astrid, you all have your weapons and are prepared for combat?" The three nodded.

"I have also created some earphones for all of you. Take this, put it in your ear and instructions will enter directly into your brains. They allow one-way telepathic communication. So I can tell all of you what to do, but you cannot answer back. I will trust that you are all able to multitask well enough to listen and fight at the same time." Alric said, handing out an earpiece to all of them. They put them in.

It made sense. Alric was the most analytical of the group, and if anyone could command from behind the scenes, it was him. He was more skilled at combat than any Special Forces soldier, but compared to the monsters present, he was at a disadvantage. He would be safest behind the bar, watching and commanding the forces. He had also made a device that could cause the object it was stuck to to become transparent like glass so that he could see through it and watch the entire battle with ease.

But it was one-way glass. So from the outside, it would look just like the bar.

"Good… Rock… I expect you to primarily act as backup. Your skill is not even peak-human level. Your shooting will primarily be a distraction to the enemy. Allow Garda, Linus, Astrid and I to be the main combatants. Miss Sawyer, Miss Lee, Dutch… You are also backup. Your skills are greater than Rock's. But not up to our standards.

"If I tell you to fall back, you do it. Revy, you just do whatever comes naturally to you. You never listened to Dutch. Why should I expect you to listen to me?" Alric said. Revy sneered.  
"Fuck you, asshole!" She growled.

"I will issue directions to you as well, Miss Lee. If you don't listen to them, that is your own problem. I cannot force you to obey me." Alric said.

"What? What about your perfect telepathic connection?"

"It is far from perfect. It only allows me to speak to you, not order you. I am working on a brain microchip that will allow me to control weaker willed individuals. But I suspect it would not work on you, Miss Lee. Please, though… If you wish to survive this fight, they will not be holding back and I cannot afford to have any loose ends. Please obey me if you wish to survive.

"If I must, I will use one of the hibernation bullets on you. It will put you in a coma-like state for approximately three days. I do not wish to waste them on you since they'll be most effective on beings like Ludmilla." Alric said.

"You really do love her, don't you Alric?" Rock asked. Alric shrugged.

"I don't know if I would say I love her. But my feelings for her go beyond simple carnal attraction. If I were to choose any of the 100 females in the Genesis Project with whom to produce offspring, I would have chosen her. Love is still a slightly foreign emotion to me." He said as they walked into the bar. Alric loaded six bullets labelled with an H on each of them. Clearly, those were all Hibernation bullets.

Rock also had three full clips of Hibernation bullets along with six clips of regular bullets, three for each of his guns. Bao greeted them unenthusiastically as they went to the bar and just ordered beer. None of them wanted to be drunk for the upcoming fight. Rock went a step further and only got juice. He knew Bao probably didn't have a lot of juice, but he needed to be as sober as he could. Rock had a surprisingly high tolerance for alcohol from his years as a company man.

But that didn't mean that he couldn't become inebriated. As they sat and drank and talked, Dutch kept checking his watch.

"So… These people… What do you know about them?" Bao asked Dutch. Dutch simply shrugged.

"Not much. They were human experiments, created from birth to be superhuman in ability. That's why we have these four with us.

"Bao, meet Alric… Garda… Linus… and Astrid."

"Pleasure, I'm sure… So… Do you have human emotions? Or are you just like flesh and blood robots?" Bao asked, being rather rude, still annoyed that he had to let his bar get shot up.

"My emotions are the closest to being human… After me, there's Garda… Her emotions are still in their infancy if you will. She keeps an excellent handle on them.

"But she has been known to show intense emotions on occasion."  
"Well… Intense for me. For anyone else, they would probably be said to border on non-existent." Garda said, her expression almost completely flat.

"But you and she…" Bao said, pointing between Linus and Garda.

"We're as close to a couple as is possible, given my emotional limitations. Back in Genesis, we would likely have been paired together to create second generation superhumans." Garda said.

"Genesis? Like Adam and Eve?" Bao asked. Linus shrugged.

"Not exactly. In their infinite modesty, our former bosses named the M and F series' after books in the Bible, as if we were an entirely new chapter of humanity." The man said.

Bao nodded, checking his watch. It was almost time.

"Between you and me, I hope you succeed. Are you planning to kill these people?" The bartender asked.

"Well…" Linus began.

"Yes and no. For all intents and purposes, they'll be dead… A doctor will declare them dead and they'll be buried." Garda said. Bao nodded, not sure if he wanted to know any more than that.

If someone was being buried alive on his watch, he was just as happy not knowing the full story. Happy not having to think about living humans screaming and kicking to get out of their coffins and slowly, agonizingly suffocating. As this thought crossed his mind, Ludmilla and her allies walked in. Ludmilla pulled out her swords.

"Ah… We had heard you would be here this evening… Linus… Alric… Astrid… Garda… Have you made peace with yourselves?" The woman asked. They nodded, standing up and pulling out their own weapons. Bao ducked behind the bar, trusting the Tungsten Carbide to do its job and protect him. Alric leapt behind the bar as well.

"Do not mind me, Mr. Bao… My job is not to fight, but to command. I'm leading the troops if you will." Alric said. The four superhumans separated to different parts of the bar, Linus pulling out his gun and firing at Ludmilla first, bouncing it off the bar, and sinking it into her leg. Unfortunately a shot like that wouldn't knock her out. When the bullet was far enough from the heart, its effects would be minimized. But it would slow her slightly.

This was both a result of the bullet in her knee and the fact that the poison was coursing through her veins, if only for a little while before it was broken down. Garda grabbed her dual Trench Spikes that she had coated with the poison and attacked Ludmilla, locking blades with her, their bodies a flash as they exchanged rapid fire blows. Garda made a slight cut on Ludmilla's left arm with her blade.

"Well done… Your melee combat has improved." Ludmilla said politely.

"Thank you. So has yours, especially considering that bullet in your knee." Garda replied, ducking under Ludmilla's sword strike and hitting the cobalt eyed superhuman directly in the chest with her spikes and twisting, using the blood to turn the poison liquid again and releasing it directly into her blood. Ludmilla staggered slightly.

"Well… Learning to ignore pain is important, too." Ludmilla said, continuing to fight until she was hit directly in the back by a bullet from Linus. Ludmilla staggered further, continuing to fight, but finding that her ability to fight was hindered now. After a few more minutes, she collapsed.

Frederica blocked several bullets from Matthias and Zane while defending Rock, who was firing regular shots at the two of them, trying to cripple rather than kill, primarily aiming for the legs and hopefully the knee. The two superhumans were too fast, though. He managed to graze them a few times. Revy was going crazy across the room, dodging bullets and returning shots. Revy's skill was impressive, considering she sank a shot into Zane's right ankle, staggering him.

Even with his limp though and the blood that was freely coming from his wound, he was still quite agile, dodging bullets with incredible grace. Bao seemed extremely tense, considering his bar was being destroyed once more. The only difference was that he had already been reimbursed for the damage. Even if the whole thing was completely obliterated, he could easily repair it with 600,000 dollars.

Dutch occasionally came out from behind the wall and fired a shot from his large caliber revolver. He never hit, but he was mainly aiming to distract, and didn't come out except when Alric ordered him to. As he stepped out one time, he felt a strange sensation of heat and prickling and suddenly, strange lights flashed in his right eye and he couldn't see out of it. He looked down and saw that his body was bleeding all over with shrapnel wounds. A table had exploded after something had been thrown at it.

Dutch could admire a well-planned and organized attack plan, and Alric had pretty much thought this up on the fly, constantly having to readjust his plan to accommodate their opponents' actions. He was also impressed that Revy was listening, reacting when she was told and staying down when she was told. He hadn't expected to be so badly injured, but he went into this knowing that he could very well die and prepared for almost any circumstance.

It seemed like Zane was especially having fun against Revy, and if there was anyone that caused Revy to lose control momentarily, it was him. He almost hit Revy several times, despite her constant movement and agility. He even grazed her leg a few times, opening up wounds across her body. She had to step up her game to exceptional levels against him, and she was enjoying this. Finally, she came up behind him, loading a green bullet in and shooting Zane in the back, right where his heart was.

Fortunately, his bones were dense enough to partially protect from the bullet, but he went down pretty quickly after that. Next, Alric readjusted his game plan to outflank and overwhelm Matthias, who was already running low on bullets, and began using his gutknife with the chain and ball at the end of it to keep people at a distance.

 _Rock… Shoot, now! Frederica, close with Matthias as a distraction._ Alric ordered. Rock came out and shot three bullets from his guns while Frederica closed with him, swinging her roaring chainsaw, which he had to block with his guns, causing some damage to them from the vibration and from the sheer weight of the attack. One of Rock's bullets sank in Matthias's foot. The second hit his other thigh.

 _Linus, finish him. Sink the final bullets and take him down. Revy, back him up. Use your unpredictable style to throw him off._

Revy came out shooting, kicking him in the knee and almost tripping him while Linus came up and shot him right in the chest as his leg buckled under him, hitting him right in the sternum. Again, it didn't sink right into his heart, but just left of it, causing the poison to course through his veins, dropping him.

The final enemy fell unconscious, and Lagoon Company, and even Alric, Garda and Astrid celebrated.

"Could you make sure they're 'dead'?" Alric asked Bao, making sure to use air quotes.

"What are the air quotes for?"

"Don't worry about it." The nearly emotionless tactical genius responded, his face nearly flat.

Bao got up and went out, sighing at the utter destruction around the bar, but checked each of them. He didn't feel a pulse on any of them and seeing how that fight had gone, he wasn't willing to stick around much longer to make sure. If they were going into the ground dead or alive, then whether or not he declared them dead, they would be going into the ground.

"They're dead."


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Good… Rock… Are you alright?" Frederica asked. Rock nodded.

"Oh, it's just a small bullet wound. You know what they say about what doesn't kill you, right?"

"It will probably succeed on the second try?" Frederica asked ironically. Rock chuckled at this.

"Well yes, but I meant that it makes you stronger." He said. Frederica nodded. She liked his outlook. It was so positive. Even with a bullet in his calf, he was so upbeat.

Revy had a few minor wounds and Dutch had a shrapnel wound from metal and wood flying up after a bullet hit a table and caused it to explode. He didn't know whether it was caused by one of his allies or by the enemy, but his face, chest and arms were riddled with cuts that needed to be looked at soon or they'd get infected. His right eye had some shrapnel in it as well, and he was sure that it would need to be taken out. Hopefully, Linus had more of that regenerative serum.

As the four superhumans got together, Hotel Moscow agents came in and began collecting the three "dead" agents and putting them in body bags and carrying them outside. They put them in the backs of vehicles, then helped the Lagoon Company and the superhumans outside. They thanked Hotel Moscow and asked that they not burn the bodies and that they receive a map of where they were being buried.

The plan had always been to bury them if they were defeated, since that would cement the illusion that they had died in the final fight. Their employers could assume that they weren't able to overwhelm their former allies. This was perfectly reasonable to believe. They went back to the Hotel Moscow main base where Balalaika gave them some time in the operating room where Linus and Alric laid Dutch and Rock down on tables, numbed them and began removing the foreign objects in their bodies.

Alric sighed, shaking his head.

"Mr. Dutch… Your right eye wasn't so much pierced as it was shredded. If it was a needle or a knife cutting through it, I might have been able to regenerate it. But this… I cannot repair it. I advise you to allow me to remove your right eye." Alric said. Dutch nodded. He never wanted to lose an eye naturally, but it was better than letting it get infected.

"Good… I'll take care of your eye first, then remove the shrapnel from the rest of your body." He said, taking a needle and applying anesthesia, watching dispassionately as Dutch's eyes closed and he fell asleep. Alric cautiously worked, removing the eye a piece at a time, making sure to get all the wood chips and metal shards out. Finally, he had gotten everything out and moved on to the rest of Dutch's body, using a magnet to take out the metal and picking the wood out a piece at a time with tweezers.

After about half an hour, Dutch woke up to find that his wounds were all healed, if scarred over. The wounds were messy, so even with regeneration serum, he was bound to scar a bit. He looked down at himself, then smiled at Alric.

"Thank you. How much do I owe you for this?" He asked.

"Nothing. You did us a favor. This is our way of returning it." Alric replied.  
"Your diplomat, Rock is a much better fighter than our research would have suggested. We are happy to continue his training… Free of charge. It is the least we could do in light of the major help that you gave us in taking care of this problem. There's a chance that we could have more people coming after us in the future. There are more superhumans who became freelance mercenaries or assassins." Alric said.

"I thought there might be. Well, we're happy to help with them as well… We could use some superhumans on our side, and I'm sure Revy would be delighted to have some superhumans training her in martial arts." Dutch said with a laugh, sitting up and grimacing slightly.

"You will still feel slight pain for the next few days. It will all be phantom pain. You don't need to worry about it. If it ever gets too intense, come back and see me again. Oh, um… Can I ask you one more favor, Mr. Dutch?"

"First of all, call me Dutch. Even my employees don't call me Mr. But sure. What's up, Alric?"

"How should I go about winning Ludmilla's affections? She and I are as close as someone like us can be to being in a relationship. We agreed that if we were not given a choice but to choose a fellow Genesis Project member to mate with, we would choose each other. But I am unsure of how to actually go about seeing whether she likes me as more than 'the best of a bad situation.'"

"Have you ever tried just asking her? I would say wait a few days after you guys dig her up. You did organize the plan to have her murdered, after all. I know that it was mutually agreed upon, but still you should wait a while for her to recover. Even if you've practiced being buried alive and surviving that kind of situation, it's not something that's terribly easy on the psyche.

"So wait a few days, then ask her if she wants to go on a date. It really is that simple."

"Simple… But not easy." Alric said, seeming uncertain now in the face of Dutch's confidence.

"Well… It's never easy to ask out the person you like. Male or female, no matter how long you've known them, there will always be some butterflies in your stomach.

"But if she can manage to be buried alive and get through it without panicking, I think you can do her the courtesy of going up to her and asking her out like a gentleman."

"I don't see how the two relate. We've all been buried alive as training for some of the most stressful situations the trainers could imagine. We were tortured, suffocated, buried alive, set upon by wild dogs.

"The idea was that if we could completely bury our emotions, that we could do anything. And we did. All of us passed basic training. Some of us took two or three times to do it, but eventually, we were all turned into emotionless monsters. I guess that makes it awfully hard to reconnect with your emotions. Doesn't it?" Alric asked. Dutch nodded.

"Well… You're giving a fairly normal emotional reaction right now. I would say you're already becoming fairly normal. Humans run the gamut from very unemotional to very emotional. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. You could say that the majority of people who fall in the extremely emotional and extremely unemotional ranges have some form of mental illness, but that's not always the case. Some people really were just raised never to show their emotions.

"You're doin' just fine, Alric."

"Thank you, Dutch… Garda, Astrid and I look forward to working with you in the future, and hopefully, Ludmilla, Matthias and Zane come out of this alive and we can work with them as well." Alric said. Dutch nodded and headed back to their hotel. They were going to collect Ludmilla, Matthias and Zane in two days rather than three. That way, just in case they woke up early, they wouldn't suffocate.

Dutch was fairly sure that if anyone could survive three days in a coffin, they could. They would probably go into a meditative coma if they woke early and weren't above ground. Perhaps it would be best to put small oxygen tanks in the coffins to safeguard their investment. Dutch hurried out to the Hotel Moscow doctors and asked them to put a small oxygen tank in each of the coffins. Dutch would reimburse them for the tanks if necessary. They agreed.

After all, Hotel Moscow was making an investment as well, and if their investment died on them, they would have lost the money. They took out three long, thin tanks and three masks, connecting the masks to the tanks and putting them on the so-called corpses.

"Can your type see in the dark?" The agent asked Alric. Alric nodded.

"Some of us can see better than others. But all of us can read well enough in the dark.

"Ah, good. Let's see…"

 _Welcome to your coffin. Don't worry. We're going to dig you up within a day or so. This oxygen tank_ should be enough to tide you over if you're conservative with your consumption.

 _Cheers,_

 _Boris_

 _(_ _отель москва_ _)_

Boris copied the note three times over and put them in the coffins along with a penlight in each of their hands. They would return the items they gave them when they walked the earth again. They then took the three to a burial site that saw a lot of traffic outside town, and dug three graves next to each other, lowering the coffins into the holes and leaving.

Ludmilla was the first to awaken. As her eyes opened, she gasped, her chest rising and falling heavily as she got her bearings about her. She opened and closed her hands slowly, working feeling and warmth back into them, which was hard considering how cold it was wherever she was. It was so tight, so enclosed. But oddly comfortable, like whatever her prison was made of was lined with silk padding. As she closed her hand, she felt a round object in it.

She felt along it, realizing that it was a flashlight. She pressed the back and suddenly, the complete blackness was pierced by an incredibly strong light. She looked around.

"Oh, for fuck's sake… I'm still in my coffin? How long have I been here?" She asked, her breath slowing as she forced herself to calm down, knowing that without extra oxygen, she would suffocate if she didn't conserve air fastidiously.

As she moved her foot, she kicked something metal.

"An oxygen tank?" She asked, taking the mask and putting it on herself, turning on the tank to low. She picked up the sticky note attached to the tank.

 _Welcome to your coffin. Don't worry. We're going to dig you up within a day or so. This oxygen tank_ should be enough to tide you over if you're conservative with your consumption.

 _Cheers,_

 _Boris_

 _(_ _отель москва_ _)_

 _Mm… At least they gave us some latitude in terms of extra oxygen. I guess I'll meditate for a while._ Ludmilla thought, closing her eyes and slowing her breathing, falling into a deep sleep until such time as she would be dug up. The Genesis Agents had all been trained to go into hibernative states if they needed to.

For instance, if they were wounded beyond what they could heal with their enhanced healing normally, they would hibernate, and the energy that would normally be spent keeping them awake and active would then be poured into healing. They could also effectively fake their deaths by going into such a deep hibernation that their life signs all but stopped. It wasn't perfect. Their heart would still beat. They would still be breathing, but so slowly and lightly that most wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

However, they were also trained to awake at the drop of a hat. From a normal night's sleep that is. From an autohypnotic hibernation, it would take at least ten minutes to fully awaken. But their life signs would be strong enough that it would be obvious that they were alive. That way, they wouldn't simply be reburied.

Ludmilla wasn't sure exactly how long it was. She was asleep after all. But eventually, she heard the clinking sound of metal on stone and the shuffling sound of dirt being displaced. They were digging her up. Her breath quickened slightly and her eyelids began to flutter. Her fingers began twitching and her heart's beat increased. She was somewhere between waking and sleeping, that point where your thoughts were able to be remembered if you were careful, but still too far asleep to really interact with the world.

As the digging and clinking got louder, her signs became more active. They were digging quickly. There must have been at least five of them by her count, digging at an expedited pace, as if they were in a hurry. Finally, there was a thud of a shovel cracking her coffin's lid. Her eyes shot open and she gasped as the lid was pried off.

"Hello, Ludmilla… It's good to see you on this side of the earth again." Alric said.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ludmilla took his hand and pulled herself up, leaping from the grave, dusting her suit off and looking down at it with a look of dismay. It was so wrinkled and dirty. There were rips in it from gun and knife wounds. There was a chainsaw mark down the side from right below her armpit almost all the way to her waist.

"We'll get you a new suit, Ludmilla. For now, are you able to help us dig up the other two graves?"

"Of course." Ludmilla said, taking her sunglasses out of her breast pocket, holding up the right glass, broken almost directly on the bridge. She sighed and threw the two pieces back into the grave, taking off her jacket and throwing it into the grave as well.

Her shirt was shredded in some places, but it would suitably cover her for now.

"Give me a damn shovel." She said, removing her gloves as well and throwing them in the grave as well. They had been torn in places, probably from blocking knife attacks and from clenching her hand, causing them to rip at the fingers and knuckles. She took the shovel and she, Alric and Astrid dug up one grave while Garda, Linus, Revy and Frederica dug up the other one.

"Where are Rock and the rest of Lagoon Company?"

"Rock is nursing a recently healed Tibia, Scapula and left Carpal and Metacarpal. He took more damage than we believed. He was limping a bit after the fight, but we assumed originally that he just twisted his knee or something relatively harmless, and frankly with the way Zane took a crowbar to his tibiae, he's lucky he didn't shatter both of his shins."

"Are you kidding? That pussy needs more injuries like that! It'll teach him to stop being such a wimp!" Revy snarled, striking the ground as hard as she could with the shovel and throwing the dirt in such a way as to get it in Frederica's shoes. She hadn't meant to… Frederica assumed, but it was irritating.

"You know, Miss Revy… There's nothing shameful about caring about your teammates." Linus said gently.

"Perhaps your relationship with Rock would be better if you would occasionally show that he mattered to you, yeah?" Linus finished. Revy's eyes opened wide at this.

"What did you say, fuckface!" Revy demanded. Linus laughed.

"You heard me, yeah? You're deliberately mean to Rock. I don't know if you're just jealous of his relationship, if you hate him or if you're just a mean person.

"But it's not conducive to a productive company."

"Screw you, asshole! You're looking for an extra asshole to shit out of!"

"And you're going to be the one who gives it to me? That would be interesting to see… If you think you're able, yeah?" Linus asked, his shovel clinking on the coffin.

He and Revy dragged the coffin out of the dirt and opened it.

"Zane… It's good to see you again, yeah?" Linus said, pulling Zane up. The young man leapt up, pulling himself out of the grave and stretching a bit.

"Ah! 'S'good to be out in the sun again! How long've we been underground?" Zane asked.

"About two and a half days." Revy said. Zane laughed.

"Hey, you're… Rebecca… Right?"

"Call me that again, we're gonna have a problem!" She demanded angrily. Zane sighed.

"What would you prefer I call you?" He asked.

"Her name is Revy…" Frederica said. Zane nodded.

"Revy, then… I saw ya fightin'. Ya really savage, girl… I can admire that. Y'all could use some more self-control in battle, though. Just a thought. Maybe I could help ya with that. You have a pretty voice, Frederica. You should use it more." Zane said to a blush from Frederica.

"I don't need help with my fighting skills!"

"Are you sure? Try shooting me. Go ahead." Zane said. Revy grinned wildly, pulling out one of her pistols and firing. Zane twisted, dodging the bullet, rolling over to Revy and standing up immediately, pointing his gun at the back of her head. Revy's eyes widened.

"Holy shit! Maybe I could learn a few things… I take it you can't make me like you? Ya know, superhuman?" Revy asked. Zane sighed, shaking his head.

"'Fraid not. Most subjects are either infants or unborn when they're enhanced. I heard that recently, two infants were accepted to the program. That they are testing the effects of genetic modification on babies, rather than only on fetuses. We hear that they were the result of a mother being killed and her children being given over to Genesis." Zane said. Revy actually laughed at this.

"Ahahahahaha! I knew those kids weren't going nowhere good! Maybe they'll actually grow up to be worth somethin', unlike their dyke mother!" Revy sneered. Zane raised an eyebrow.

"You knew the kids?" He asked, finding that hard to believe.

"Yeah. Two brats named Phoebe and Leopold… Their mother was some stupid bimbo who got in way over her head in Roanapur and ended up at the bottom of the ocean."

"Really? That's a shame. You seem tragically short on empathy for these people… Well… I can't fault you. My sense of empathy is limited as well. Intellectually, I can fake empathy. But I have difficulty actually showing human levels of identification with others' emotions."

"You talk funny! Whether yer doin' yer low-brow talk or yer high-brow talk, ya still talk weird."

"I'm not certain what to make of that comment… But funny talk aside, would you consider allowing me to take you to dinner?"

"As long as you're buyin', that's fine…" Revy said. Zane wasn't quite sure if she fully understood his intentions, but he had just gotten a date with her, so he wasn't going to complain if all that took was being willing to pay for a few drinks and some food.

After all, Ludmilla, Matthias and he were hardly short on money. They were almost always paid in cash, and were easily able to charge in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for their work. This past job had fallen through because they had identified with their targets and chose to turn on their employers rather than complete the job. But that didn't mean they were poor by any means.

"That sounds reasonable. Do you have any preferences in food or drink?"

"Not really. Whether I'm drinkin' swill-grade beer or 10,000 dollar liqueur, I'll still get just as buzzed." Revy said dismissively. Zane nodded. She was a heavy drinker, then. Alcohol tended to cost more than food. But he could bring some extra money to cover that aspect of their date.

"Well… We've been standing here for a while… Talking, and that's nice. But we need to get Matthias outta the ground, afore he suffocates down in that box. Didn't he have claustrophobia when he was a soldier for Genesis?" Zane asked. Garda's eyes widened. Zane was right. She grabbed her shovel and began digging quickly. Linus followed her, beginning to dig just as frantically, hoping that he hadn't used up all his oxygen already. They had only been down there for about 2.5 days.

If they had been conservative with their oxygen consumption, they could have lasted 5 days by going into an autohypnotic trance and effectively faked their death again while they waited. But if Matthias had been stressed, he may have had trouble affecting that state of being and he might have used up too much oxygen far too quickly. Zane and Ludmilla joined in, digging faster than they had been before.

They finally reached the box and Zane jammed the tip of his shovel blade into the box cover and jerked upwards, ripping the box up, displacing the nails and he and Garda grabbed it, their fingers flexing as they ripped the top up and they found Matthias with his eyes closed. Linus knelt down and felt his neck, searching for a pulse, finally finding one. It was going very slowly.

Linus checked the gauge on the oxygen tank and found that it was more than ¾ of the way to empty. He had used more than he should have needed. But he eventually went into a hibernative trance and was breathing slowly enough to suggest that he had been in there for at least a few hours.

"Alright. On three…" Linus said. "1… 2… 3… Lift." He said. Zane picked him up, hefting the young man over his shoulder and leaping out of the grave, walking away from the ledge.

Linus helped Garda up, then was pulled up by her. The two looked at each other with a strange mix of blunted attraction and uncertainty.

"Hey, Garda… Did you… Want to join Lagoon Company? I'm sure that Dutch would be happy to extend you an invitation, and with all of these superhumans in Roanapur, it's probably best if you guys aren't seen to be directly affiliated with one mob.

"It's not that having superhumans is a problem. It's the image of strength that each mob projects. Right now, they have a tenuous balance, a stalemate if you will. But if it becomes known that Hotel Moscow has superhuman agents, that balance starts to look like it's tipping in favor of Hotel Moscow, and the other mobs are likely to begin scrambling to get their hands on some of us as well.

"It's good to be seen to have polite and even friendly relations with all three main families in Roanapur. But it's not good to be seen to work directly for one of them." Linus said.

"I'm certain that if you guys wanted to, you could all become extremely successful mercenaries working out of Roanapur. Or you could work for a company or independently of each other even." Linus said. Garda nodded. She hadn't considered any of that. It was more political than she had anticipated.

"You're right… I'll speak with Miss Balalaika. I'm sure that we can work something out. After all, we defeated her agents singlehandedly. They don't pose a huge threat to us." Garda said, brushing her red hair back from her eyes. It was a breezy day and although it was hot out, it wasn't humid. The weather was very pleasant.

Zane called Linus and Garda over. The two ran over to the side of the grave, where Matthias was beginning to stir.

"Ah… I was afraid I was going to suffocate down there. You know how much I hate tight places. Shame on you."

"Would you rather we incinerate you to "prove your death?" Alric asked. Matthias laughed.

"No… Thank you for not killing us, Miss Sawyer, Miss Lee… You fought well, very fiercely. Your abilities were almost comparable to one of our trainees." Matthias said to the two women. Frederica smiled weakly, turning a faint pink.

"Thank you." She whispered.

She still could barely believe that she was talking again. She occasionally whispered "I can talk" to herself, just to confirm it. Just to make sure that it hadn't been a dream, that she hadn't just imagined it, or that it really was permanent.

"I can talk." She muttered. Linus smiled at her. "Thank you…" She said, hugging Linus tightly, tears flooding her eyes again.

"You never need to thank me, Miss Sawyer. It was my pleasure to help you." He said. Garda rolled her eyes. She could see that he was being genuine when he said that, but he loved the feeling that someone was actually grateful to him for something that he did. She understood that. So few of their allies ever experienced someone truly being grateful to them. It was mostly professional satisfaction for a job well done. And even that was fleeting. After all, who stood a chance against them? They were superhumans.

It wasn't like if someone was able to close with them and fight them in melee, they might have survived. They were superhumans and trained in almost every martial art known to man as well as at least two that had been created especially for those with superhuman abilities. Professional satisfaction was weak, fleeting. But now, he had done a good thing for someone and didn't expect anything in return.

"You helped her? What did you do? Give her some of Alric's weird inventions? Train her to use that chainsaw of hers better? Are you lovers now?"

Frederica blanched angrily at this last suggestion.

"No! He… He fixed my vocal chords… I can talk again… I've been mute for almost ten years. He fixed my vocal chords so that I could talk again." Frederica said.

"Ah… You used your regenerative serum on her. That shit is expensive. You shoulda' saved it for yourself or someone who really mattered to you… Ya know, like Garda?"

"I have a few more vials… I didn't have to use much. It was just repairing her vocal chords, yeah?" Linus said. Matthias nodded cautiously.

"But how would you go about getting more?"

"I'd ask Alric to help me redirect an order of the raw materials heading towards a Genesis Laboratory and mix the elements myself… I did get a PhD level education in chemistry, biochemistry, physics, biology and anatomy. It would hardly be a stretch to mix some chemicals, yeah?"

"I hadn't ever thought of that. Remember to keep the vials refrigerated. They need to stay at a constant temperature of no more than 1.7oC and no less than 0.6oC."

"Yes, yes. I remember Genesis's admonishments when we accidentally ruined some of the materials. Once they're mixed, they need to be kept airtight so that they don't spoil and shaken before they're administered. Remember? I was top of the class in that course, yeah?" Linus asked.

"Oh, yeah. Well… We better get going. These graves ain't getting any fuller." Matthias laughed, taking a shovel and filling one of the holes. Alric and Ludmilla worked on another one while Linus and Garda worked on the third.

"Ludmilla? May I borrow your ear for a moment?" Alric asked. Ludmilla smirked at this turn of phrase.

"Just make sure to return it when you're done with it. And keep it clean." She said.  
"No, I mean… Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"I know what you meant. Just talk. You don't need permission…" She said, breathing as she shoveled dirt back into the hole.

"I wondered if you would go to dinner with me this weekend." Alric asked. Ludmilla blushed slightly, not wanting to show her emotions too much. She was flattered, though.

"Are you asking me on a date, Alric?" She asked. Alric actually laughed.

"I know… It was a stretch. Sorry I bothered you." Alric muttered. Ludmilla shook her head.

"No… I'm flattered… I just didn't know you felt that way.

"You and I agreed that we would be partners if Genesis insisted that we create a second generation of superhumans. But I assumed you believed it to be an alliance of convenience."

"Well… At first it was. You were the one who interested me the most of my allies. I suppose my feelings intensified after we left Genesis and separated. I worked with Garda and Astrid and my interactions with normal humans taught me to have near-human emotion…"

"You don't need to say anymore. Where were you planning to go?" Ludmilla asked. Alric shrugged.

"We could wander around until we find somewhere interesting. I'm not terribly familiar with this town." Alric suggested uncertainly. Ludmilla raised an eyebrow at him, but actually laughed.

"Sounds like a date. You know, I could get used to these emotions." Ludmilla said.

Linus smiled. It was nice to see his friends starting to seem so human.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

"You're gonna do _what_ tonight? Revy demanded, caught between hysterical laughter and silent shock, so she settled for yelling what she was going to say.

"I'm… Gonna propose to Frederica tonight… We're going on a date and… Well, we've been going out for over a year, now. And I'm not getting any younger…" Rock said, blushing slightly at the disbelieving looks on his crewmates' faces.

"But why?" Revy asked.

"Because I love her." Rock said, fingering the ring that he was going to give to her. Revy gagged silently.

"That's stupid! You have like half a dozen bitches chasing you around Roanapur, and you settle for just one! You're a fucking retard!" Revy snarled, turning away so that Rock couldn't see the look in her eyes. Rock sighed and nodded.

"Well… Maybe it is stupid… Nobody ever said love made sense. But I won't know if I don't try, right?" He asked. Revy gagged exaggeratedly again while Dutch, Benny and Linus just smiled at the idea. Dutch wondered what would become of his crew if Rock left it in order to marry Frederica. It had been fine before Rock came, so he was sure that they would be fine if he left. But he had become a pivotal part of the crew. The diplomat, the tactician. He was an important part of the crew.

"So, does this mean you're planning on leaving Roanapur?" Benny asked. Rock shook his head.

"Nah… I wouldn't fit in anywhere else anymore. I didn't even feel at home in my native country when I went there. I gotta get going. I'm already pretty late. I doubt Frederica would like me being late. Later…" Rock said, putting on his belt with his weapons on it and running out the door.

"Hey… Frederica… Sorry I'm late…"

"That's okay. You're only a few minutes late. Let's get going. We don't want to miss our reservations." Frederica said, taking Rock's hand and leading him out the door. Shenhua had been observing Rock strangely closely while he was there, like she was appraising him. Had she been hired to assassinate him? Would she have been willing to do so?

She was certainly amoral enough to accept the job. But would she be willing to kill her friend's boyfriend? That, he wasn't sure of. As they got to the restaurant, Rock checked his watch. They were five minutes late, so he picked up speed, sprinting the last 100 yards and walking in the door, breathless as the waiter took them to their table. As he did, he looked appraisingly at Rock as well.

"We… Aren't going to have a shootout here tonight, are we, Mr. Okajima?" He asked, apparently remembering the last date Rock and Frederica had been on. Rock laughed.

"Well… There are no guarantees in life. But we haven't heard about anyone being after us. So I would hazard to say no, there won't be." He said with an easy laugh.

Ever since he had moved to Roanapur full time, and truly gotten situated, he had noticed that he was becoming much less anxious, far less angry and much, much more willing to have fun. In Japan, he was a businessman, first and last. He often stayed in the office 12-14 hours a day and got drunk to forget about the stress that his job was putting on him. He was nobody in Japan.

In Roanapur, he was arguably still nobody, but he legitimately had friends, people he would gladly kill or die for. Dutch, Benny, even Revy who although she was overbearing and even cruel, he valued her. They were like the family he always wished he had. And now, he had a girlfriend who loved him for who he was and whom he also loved and who wasn't concerned with whether he was a high ranking businessman or just a delivery boy.

As they looked over their menus, Rock rehearsed in his head again what he was going to say to her.

 _Frederica, it's been the pleasure of my life getting to know you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you… No, that sounds stupid. Frederica, I was kind of nervous about this, but if I don't say it now, I'll never be able to._

"What are you nervous about, Rock?" Frederica asked, raising an eyebrow. Rock gasped. He had said that out loud? Ugh… His nerves had gotten the better of him.

"Well, now or never, I guess. Frederica… We've… Been dating a little over a year, and I… Wanted to know if you'd… Marry me?" Rock muttered, holding out a diamond ring for her.

A deep crimson blush filled Frederica's cheeks as she stared disbelievingly at the ring. Finally, she picked it up gingerly, as though the slightest jostle would break it.

"Yes… I will…" She whispered, reaching across the table and hugging Rock tightly, kissing him on the lips.

"Boy… I meant to do this at the end of the meal… But I guess now was as good as ever, right? You should probably hide that." Rock said casually. Frederica nodded, picking an inside pocket underneath her dress and zippering the ring into it. You couldn't be too careful with such valuables in Roanapur. The man who sold it to Rock had said that his store had been robbed five times just in two months, and the scarcity of robberies was only because he set up burglar proofing.

The last time his store had been robbed, all the burglars ended up riddled with bullets from automatic weapons hidden in the walls of the store. Actually, Frederica's company had been hired to clean up after that mess. Their meals came soon after. Frederica had again ordered a huge dinner and steadily made her way through it as though she had a hollow leg.

Finally, they finished dinner and headed out, Rock making sure that his weapons were on him. He didn't take for granted that he might be robbed. They made their way back to Frederica's apartment, where she immediately showed Shenhua and Lotton the ring. Lotton had a surprisingly underwhelming reaction. But he never reacted very loudly. Shenhua on the other hand ran over and hugged Frederica.

"That great! I hope he propose soon, yes I do!" She said in her broken English. "So, when is wedding?" She asked. Rock shrugged.

"I'm not sure, yet. I didn't even know if she would say yes. How could I have planned the wedding?" Rock asked. Shenhua raised an eyebrow.

"You no have enough confidence, no you don't. Of course she say yes! I sorry I staring at you earlier. I no want make you uncomfortable. Just wondering what you mean for Sawyer now."

"Well… Maybe our next date can be at a karaoke bar… Now that she can talk again."

"Oh, dear… I'm not sure I'm ready for that, yet." Frederica muttered nervously. Shenhua and Lotton laughed about this.

"I'm sure you'd be fine. Nobody expects you to sound like a professional." Lotton said. Frederica scowled at this.

"I used to sound like a professional. Singing was a huge part of my life."

"It could be again, yes it could. You need just practice, yes?" Shenhua suggested. Frederica nodded.

"I guess I learned once. I can learn again. Good night, Rock." Frederica said, a blush still on her cheeks.

Rock nodded, kissing Frederica tenderly on the lips. Lotton turned away, thinking it rude to watch while Shenhua privately thought that Rock seemed like a good kisser. Finally, they broke apart and Rock headed out, going back to Lagoon Company's apartment. Revy was still awake when Rock got in. As he sat down, her eyes narrowed.

"So… What'd she say?" She asked. Rock sighed happily.

"She said yes." Rock replied. Revy smirked. "Well… They say life ends at marriage. We'll see how long you survive the institution. Y'all gonna get married at the Rip-Off Church, or you gonna get married in Japan or some stupid shit like that?"

"No… Officially, I'm dead. Remember? My company told me to disappear into the South China Sea. They staged my funeral and everything. I bet my family didn't even show up." Rock said, seeming resentful suddenly. Revy actually looked like she sympathized for a moment.

"Well… You lived with the living, and now you've died with the dead. And soon, you're gonna die again. I can't say I don't pity you… Stuck with a wife and kids…" Revy said.

Rock rolled his eyes.

"I'm not sure Frederica wants kids. We haven't really talked about it. It never seemed like a good time. Frederica and I will probably get married at the Rip-Off Church… Or maybe just a marriage certificate. I guess it depends on what we decide. We haven't really made any definite plans yet." Rock said. Revy nodded.

"Well… Good for you. No, really. I'm happy for you." Revy said, actually smiling. She had seemed terribly surly at first, and this seemed strange to Rock. But he could tell that she was being sincere… As sincere as she could be, anyway.

"Oh, and if you're gonna be at my wedding… And I hope you will be, please wear something appropriate? Do you have any dresses? Pants? Shorts that don't ride halfway up your ass?" Rock asked.

He felt like the compromises he was making were getting ever more embarrassing, both for him and for Revy. In fairness, how many situations would there be for Revy that she needed a dress? She was hardly an office worker. She scarcely needed to wear a pantsuit or a dress to go to work, though he wondered how she stretched as well as she did in the shorts that she did wear. They didn't seem terribly practical either. Revy's scowl deepened into one of pure loathing and disgust.

"I haven't worn a dress since before I came here! I have three long sleeved shirts and two pairs of jeans! I don't need anything else! And I ain't changing that for you or anyone!" The purple haired gunslinger snarled. Rock sighed.

"Well… Maybe you could wear the long jeans then. The wedding won't be long. The ceremony usually only lasts half an hour at the most."

"What about the afterparty?"

"You can get as drunk as you like so you don't have to think about the fact that you're wearing jeans." Rock said. Revy nodded. That sounded like a deal.

"Who's gonna be yer Best Man?"

"Well… Usually a man chooses his best friend, or his brother or cousin or someone like that… I guess I'd really have to think about that. Maybe Dutch? I wonder more who Frederica's bridesmaids, if any will be." Rock said. "You will be dressed appropriately at the wedding right, Revy?" Rock asked, seeming slightly desperate.

"Long as I can carry my guns with me, I guess the clothes don't matter." Revy said dismissively. Rock sighed. It was better than he was expecting. But then again, this was Roanapur. Who wore a bridal gown or a tuxedo in Roanapur? It was way too hot and such clothes were way too restrictive, completely impractical. Rock sighed.  
"You know what, Revy? Wear what you want. I doubt anyone else will be dressed up. It wouldn't be fair to expect you to dress up." Rock said.

Revy nodded.

"Thanks… Now, if you'll excuse me it's 3 in the afternoon and I'm not drunk yet." She replied.


End file.
